


Seldom Session of Spallation at: Sirius the Spaceship

by riddiculous



Category: Haikyuu!!, Space -Fandom, Star Trek inspiration extraordinaire, is space a fandom, what is not a Star Trek inspiration tbh
Genre: Anyways, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Genderbend, M/M, Other, Unrequited Love, expect slow burn, first attempt at a pairing fic, my writing goes Like That, not at all, not cause it was intended, they all are adults. except like. hint and kags, they can be trans or cis females it's up to you tbh, they're barely adults so it doesn't count
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2018-11-21 00:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 50,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11346330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riddiculous/pseuds/riddiculous
Summary: Keiji likes working aboard Sirius the Spaceship. It's like a small country there, and people are generally nicer to her than people around her have always been. Her profession does have its hazards, but she gets by with the helps of her friends. One day, she notices something about the captain of the ship -something that bites the eye and bugs the hell out of Keiji. That's... no... that's allwrong. What is she doing? That's not...how Bokuto would react.Not at all.





	1. Something's Off

The blink of an eye –it was the time Keiji’s intellect needed to predict the fact. Captain, was no longer there with them. Captain that they’d been obeying was not… Keiji wasn’t even sure if it was of the same species as Captain Bokuto. For how long, it’d been standing in her place? Was it a twin? A prank? How could she be so blind? How could she not see this coming? They were out there in space, for gods’ sake, Keiji mentally scolded herself as she tried her best to hide that obvious realization glinting inside her expression. Her hands were shaking, but only slightly so. She’d been on this ship for almost a year now. The crew was on a mission to map as much as space they could of the Leo-Supercluster in seven years. Keiji was no idiot.   
She had known the real goal of this mission even before she’d volunteered to join the crew. More than half of the crew members had backgrounds as cops, soldiers, warriors, and so on. Amount of weapons that could only be used in a guerilla battle was high, and weapons had lots of variety. And lieutenants woke members of the crew tad too early for ‘working out’ (which involved training with weapons. Keiji had chosen to train with a saber, a curvy sword that originated from Terra.). Keiji knew she was on a warship. A warship that was under the deity of The League of Virgo-Supercluster, that occasionally does actual science and mapping. A league that just had a conflict with one of the Leo-Supercluster’s galaxies –a small brush. They were probably going there to show off their guns.Thankfully, her shaking stopped. Relieved, she retreated to her seat from the location-indicative chips. She didn’t have to leave the main chambers after all. She’d have a chance to keep an eye on the intruder. Make sure it wasn’t their captain. Determine its intentions. Maybe knock it out. Whoever this creature was... it would regret getting onto Captain Bokuto's ship.In the chambers, there were only her, intruder, and second in command Sugawara –who has been to lots and lots of intergalactic wars. Keiji was sure of that Sugawara knew the delicacy of this mission and thus, he would sacrifice as much as he could to complete the mission. Once she was sure, she could open the subject up to him. Keiji was sure he would at least try to help –which comforted her, the fact that she’d always have companions here. She didn’t trust all of them –she trusted exactly four of them, that’s not the subject here– but eventually, she would at least get used to the idea of trusting so many people. Being part of something so big.There was only one great question left, scratching her brain in a way which left Keiji frustrated beyond measure: if this… creature was sitting in the captain’s seat, snacking on salted pomegranate seeds (which Captain Bokuto hated) and definitely was not Kotarou; then where the hell was the real one?

***

“Keiji, may I talk to you for a second?” She had just left the main chambers when she heard Sugawara’s footsteps before his sweet, sedative voice. She turned towards him.

“Of course, Co-Captain Sugawara.” She respectfully responded. Sugawara chuckled. 

“Always so serious. I told you to call me Koushi. Anyways,” Sugawara gestured to the pipe room, the deadly mega thermal mechanic engine room of the spaceship, which almost always had little to no people inside. “There is a delicate matter that we must talk in private.” His tone slowly turned to serious from sweet. Keiji didn’t like the pipe room. An average human could spend ten minutes at most in the room, before they evaporate from dehydration. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been in the room before, but considering that she… was not the average human, she’d rather stay away. Keiji didn’t like that place at all.

“Is it… that important?” Keiji said, clearly stating that she was uncomfortable being inside the pipe room. Sugawara, who looked quite angry, seemed as if he would scold Keiji for being such a coward. Man up, L.I.S.T. Akaashi! I’ve always told them this mission had no room for girls! his expression was already shouting at her. But then he started laughing, quieter than usual though.

“Man, I'm just messin’ with you. Let’s just… go to my room.” He said, between giggles. “You know, sometimes you are too easy to trick.” He said.Keiji, who stared in exhaustion to her co-captain for a good minute before answering. “Only by you, co-captain.” She sighed and followed him. This wasn’t rare either. Why, why she had always fallen for these… jokes? Pranks? Trolling? Keiji couldn’t come up with any other explanation than that she was still very much naïve, and she had a long way to go.Or, maybe she needed less sadistic superiors.  
The walk felt longer than it should have to Keiji –she did wonder what Sugawara had to tell, but it wasn’t exactly why the walk had felt long. She stared at the floor without lowering her head to avoid people’s gaze. Most of the crew knew Keiji even though she was fairly new on this ship, because she was the leader of identification of species team (L.I.S.T. for short). They would occasionally eye her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. No, Keiji was sure they had little to no bad intentions; they weren’t harassing her with their gaze, she was sure the reason behind the attention that she gathered was curiosity –but it still made Keiji uncomfortable to be noticed.She dared to tear her gaze from the ground only once –and that was enough for her. She turned her look to the ground once again as soon as a Terran woman scanned her, then winked at her. She probably shouldn’t be blushing since that woman was way older than Keiji was, but she couldn’t help not to. Sugawara didn’t seem to mind it at all, in fact –he was probably enjoying his low-key sadistic self.When they finally made their way to Sugawara’s personal room, a rusty clog in Keiji’s brain fit in with the others with a light click sound –what if woman winked at her not because she found her appearance appealing, but she thought Sugawara and Keiji…Oh, no . Keiji thought to herself. What if? But, this type of a confession was too blunt for Sugawara. She knew he wouldn’t do such thing. Right? He only wanted to talk about Captain’s sudden change of personality. That must be it. And wait –didn’t Sugawara already have a partner? Then why was she so unsure? Was unsure even the right word? Keiji didn’t know. All she had to do was to wait. Not like he would insist on anything after Keiji’d done explaining. She had no interest in him that way. In fact, she had no interest in he’s that way.   
“Yeah, make yourself comfortable Keiji.” Sugawara said, as they both entered the room. It made them look odd, going into a private room. Almost as if… Don’t think about that, Keiji commanded herself. She knew how this might have looked like to outsiders, but she didn’t care about that. Sugawara, Co-Captain of this spaceship, wanted to discuss a delicate matter with the ship’s L.I.S.T., nothing fishy.Sugawara leading her to his room and then locking the door didn’t help much either.  
   
“Please make yourself comfortable.” He said, gesturing that she could sit anywhere she wanted. He’d asked twice already, it dawned on her. She chose to sit down on the dark green couch that looked kind of lumpy. Keiji sat there as Sugawara turned around to a cupboard and took a bottle and two tall glasses.

“So… have you noticed?” Sugawara, pouring himself some kind of alcoholic beverage (which he offered to her, but she declined), asked. 

“You mean Captain Bokuto, right?” She replied. He sat on his bed with the glass.

“Yes. She’s always been… unstable; but yes, I think something’s off.” He sipped his drink. Keiji shifted in her seat. 

“You’ve known her for a long time now. Did something like this happen before?” Keiji asked. Sugawara frowned as he tried to recall.

“No… I mean,” He sloshed his drink down. “She has always been an enthusiastic ball of energy, full of mood-drops and innovative ideas but; she’s never been this way. It’s… almost like she is –”

“Someone else,” Keiji rudely interrupted Sugawara. “I’m sorry. That’s what I was meaning to say too.” She spoke softly. Sugawara chuckled. He put the now empty glass to the small counter. “My initial thought was… Captain being held captive by a species that could morph their active and passive genes to access to their needed appearance. Though I am not sure if it’s the genes.” She added. It might be a geneless society. Man, that would just make Terran scientists very upset. She thought. Sugawara took a brief look at her, probably contemplating some memories from the last week.

“Maybe. I’m not that pessimistic though –I believe Kotarou is just fine. That does sound like a theory.” Keiji smiled promptly. If it wasn’t for her species’ superiority over humans in intuition and sixth sense, there was no way Sugawara would believe her. 

“That happens to be my profession.” Even though I.S.T. didn’t know much about species who lived in this part of the universe, Keiji was sure they could understand them and their behavior. 

“I mean that’s all very interesting and I want to know more but –I’m sorry, as much as I want to know why, I won’t be able to investigate this because I have to make sure ‘Captain’ doesn’t make ‘bad’ decisions.” Sugawara’s words were more concentrated this time, as he spoke faster than his usual speed. He sat down again. Maybe he does believe me. “Do you know why I shared these thoughts with you?” He chafed his hands. Keiji had some ideas but they didn’t feel like such strong ones. So she shook her head.

“Not because you are the L.I.S.T. of this ship, nor you are one of the few personnel who can enter the main chambers with no permission.” He fondly looked at Keiji, like a father would –which left her at an utter state of surprise. “Because you are capable of solving this… this riddle. Now, I want you to find at least one person to share this situation with –let me know who you tell.” Sugawara said, locking the cupboard. “Damn Tetsurou –he keeps stealing my booze!” He exclaimed in an exhausted tone. He doesn’t just  believe me, he knows that’s the case. Keiji felt a brief wave of confusion create ripples against the riptides inside her head.  
“Co-Captain Sugawara, I don’t understand,” she said, out of the blue. “For how long you’ve known about B… Captain Bokuto’s situation?” she asked. Sugawara narrowed his eyes, trying to understand that which point of his had confused Keiji. 

“I’ve just found this out, like you did. I mean, I’ve had my doubts but the salted pomegranate seeds did it. I mean, salted pomegranate seeds? Kotarou is allergic to those!” He exclaimed, which was actually just the fancy way to say pomegranate seeds make Bokuto experience diarrhea like it’s the Terran 1800’s. But Keiji already knew that –well, she didn’t know captain was allergic to the seeds. She’d known she had always avoided products that contained pomegranate– and now she had no choice but to be rude.

“Why can’t you help me? Or tell me who to talk to?” she asked in her usual tone. She didn’t channel any anger, frustration, nor annoyance in her tone but somehow it’d still come out rude.

“I… I’m going to be totally honest with you here, Keiji.” Sugawara got up, a shameful expression sprawled to his expression. He sighed. “I don’t think I qualify. I’m too sentimental, and I’ll refuse to see things from another perspective, even if it's necessary. Because Kotarou and I are old friends, I might fall for the-bastard-who-wears-her-skin-but-not-her-attitude’s manipulations.” He coughed before continuing. “You, on the other hand, would never lose your cool even if Kotarou was your lover.” If Keiji would have had the drink that Sugawara had offered, she'd most likely choke on it. Sugawara unlocked the door and opened it. Keiji was thankful for the timing –idea of captain as a lover was… too much to handle. She didn’t think about those… issues since she’d left her hometown. She didn’t mind. She pretended her attraction towards anyone didn’t exist.

“Plus,” Sugawara added. “I think I’ll be busy trying to prevent an intergalactic war or something –there must be some planets which would benefit from war around here or there. We’d have no chance with Sirius, this far from base, too.” He said with no pause. Keiji understood him. His responsibilities are already a heavy burden; which Sugawara had been pulling with a thin, silk piece of string for the entirety of the mission.

“I am going to do my best. I will let you know, sir.” Keiji said. Her respect for the superior had risen. Sugawara sighed.

“You make me feel so old. Told you to call me Koushi but at this point, even Co-Captain Sugawara is better.” He put his hand to his pockets after locking his door again. Though it wasn’t so busy, there were some people in the corridor. Keiji could not risk talking to Sugawara on this subject. 

“You are totally right, co-captain. I think the Beatles were quite overrated.” Keiji said with a blank expression. Few people passed them by. 

“Yes –ah, you’re right, too. But she's also got her points.” Sugawara bursted out in panic. Keiji had caught him off-guard. “What is the Beatles?” he mouthed quickly to Keiji. She chuckled lightly. She tended to forget not all people were into obscure classical music from ages ago like she was. 

“Nothing that you should mind, co-captain.” She did her long black hair into a ponytail –the ship was too warm. Ship always felt too warm for Keiji. They walked towards the main chambers together. But this time, Keiji did not choose to eye the floor that often.


	2. I Lied.

It had been exactly an hour. Sugawara had told her his suspicions –which were nearly identical to Keiji’s. Keiji had to think –but she actually had little to no time to think. She was at least 93% certain that Captain Bokuto had been replaced by some kind of shapeshifter, but she had no idea what the shifter’s intentions were.   
Or if there were more in the ship.

Don’t think about that now.

She had to find someone to speak with –share this suspicion, no, secret with. Co-Captain Sugawara had told her so. But who to pick?   
Keiji knew she didn’t have many options. Out of ninety-six members of the crew, there were only four people which she trusted. The first was, undoubtedly Captain Bokuto; and only one of them was also a member of I.S.T. –Tsukishima Kei. Now, Keiji trusted Tsukishima as a coworker, as a scientist. She wasn’t sure how he’d handle the news. And the guy’s main vibe was let sleeping dogs lie. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell him. No, she definitely didn’t want to tell him.   
But who, then? Without captain and Sugawara already out of question; she’d only have one more option: Hitoka. Keiji surely didn’t want to give the already-timid girl a stroke. She would panic lots. Her instincts would refuse to think straight and it would end up worse than it was in the beginning.   
Besides, Hitoka was a doctor –her research subjects clearly did not match with Keiji’s. That was an issue, too.  
Keiji had to think more beneficially. She went into that small break-room that crew members rarely go into. Because it is one of the furthest rooms from the main chambers, the break-room is almost always freezing. Not for Keiji though. Her own room was too far away from the main chambers, too. It was natural for her, she preferred it that way.   
She checked her watch. The room’s temperature was -7 °C. Not even close to Keiji’s home’s welcoming nippiness. She missed being there but she surely did not miss the people, especially her relatives. They’ve always mocked Keiji for being… different. She sure was –her father was a Terran man she’d never known. Her mom had died during her birth, or at least that was what she’d been told by her grandmother. For a species that live in a cold wasteland, their hospitability was great. They’ve always welcomed strangers that show up at their doors –if they were Orbian, of course.   
Racism was out of question in the planet Orb. You and your parents were born on this planet? Is your skin blue? Are you a pure, fertile member of your species? Cool, your rights are as much equal as they could be to anyone. There was no such thing as bluer they are, better they are, which was always a good thing. They had minimized racism and sexism. Keiji did wish she could fit in, she really did. She only has one problem though.   
She isn’t blue.  
To be fair, she sometimes appears blue, in moonlight or dark environments. But in daylight, she appears greyish, which seems like an unhealthy white –maybe that is why Keiji receives so many concerned looks on the ship. Yeah, probably. Everybody must think she is a human. Which is, you know, at least somewhat the truth. Keiji didn’t know if they would be disappointed if they found out the truth. Orbians weren’t exactly loved among other cultures, mainly because their discrimination on species and their bigotry and ignorance against cross-species marriage.  
Keiji would never be accepted –maybe not even by herself. But she was okay with that. Her life was good; she was doing something she actually enjoyed. She did like the crew that she was part of, even though she still couldn’t build a solid wall of trust towards them.   
Breakroom had a small fridge (which would be really unnecessary if Keiji hadn’t asked Kenma for help –the fridge’s temperature was at -12° and the freezer's was at -32°.) in which Keiji kept iced tea. Bland. Sugar-free. She didn’t know why, but the iced tea has always made her feel better. She needed to feel better. She needed to think about present, not past.   
So even though she felt lazy, she got up to get some tea. The organic antifreeze substance that was recently developed by Dr. Yukie (Keiji was allergic to the inorganic one that's available at your local market. Although, come to think of it, she reckons it's because antifreeze is deadly to almost any organic species. Why do humans buy antifreeze, then? They sure are... strange.) kept Keiji’s tea cold and liquid. She sat down on the soft widow seat, and observed the infinite abyss of space vacuum. Keiji adored space. but observing space like this? Felt insanely fantastic. It was a privilege. Space –only the other side of the thick, yet light metal wall. Keiji could easily penetrate it with gadgets if she wanted to. She could literally kill everyone in this spaceship by doing so. Seeing space like this made her feel invincible on the ship, even though anyone could create a hole on the outer walls.  
But that was stupid. Keiji would never intentionally endanger the lives of any these people.   
She pondered some more about who to tell. Or if she should tell anyone at all. She couldn’t come up with someone at all –she knew they’d all at least try to help but, she didn’t know who would take news with the least damage. Maybe she should just… confront captain about it? Take the creature out? No, that was a bad idea. Physically, Captain Bokuto could take on Keiji anytime. Keiji could come up with at least eight ways captain could kill her. And that wasn’t considering the creature’s abilities. Maybe the creature was also capable of copying one's level of physical power -or rather, it was just strong.  
That was it. She had to determine the creature first. Maybe she should get a sample, to see if it matched Bokuto’s DNA. She had to get a sample as soon as possible. But how could she do that without seeming suspicious? Keiji had to plan, and she had to plan well.  
She sipped the tea, her teeth whimpered, protesting to the cold; but her insides welcomed it. It might sound odd, but Keiji felt warmer as she sipped that blizzard tea. She felt at peace. She was looking right out of Sirius the spaceship’s window (inorganic glass of an artificial polymer), when she heard noises at the door. She turned her eyes towards the door in one swift move, setting the glass on the small table.   
Door busted open, and as abruptly as it flung open; it shut down. And nearly, but not as abruptly as it shut down; a flick of orange knocked over a large portion of blizzard tea.

“Ahhhh! C –cold!” the orange thing exclaimed loudly. That was when Keiji realized it wasn’t a ‘thing’. It was a person with an outrageously bright hair color of orange. The person who turned to Keiji and clung onto her arm. “You can’t let them take me!” It appeared this person did not know how to speak quietly. Keiji remembered seeing his face somewhere –he must’ve been a member of the crew. 

“Why? What did you do?” Keiji said, uncomfortable because of the sudden skin-contact. The boy didn’t seem to take her message though, so Keiji manually detached him from her arm. He was surprisingly strong for a guy that small. 

“I… I accidentally knocked over –” He gulped. “He’s coming! He’s coming!” Keiji was getting more and more frustrated with the guy every minute.

“Look, um, kid.” She didn’t know his name. “I can’t be of much help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong. You are Terran, correct? You really shouldn’t spend much time here.” She said. This got Orange’s attention. He nodded briefly. He was shivering because of cold –and fear, possibly. Keiji had no idea how someone this…well, whatever that guy was, had made it into the crew. 

“I…” Orange grabbed a blanket which happened to be lying around. He sounded like a normal person now. “My name is Hinata Shoyo. I’m a lab assistant for Chemistry of the Species. I was going through a new sample of a recently discovered species’ skin tissue and…” He started shivering once more. Keiji felt all her patience leave her body. She tried to kindly encourage him to speak, by smiling at him. Nobody ever smiled at Orb, so the custom still felt a bit weird on her mouth. Hinata smiled at her.

“As I said, I was observing the tissue. That was when the CS-Pres –sorry, that’s what we call the leader of our team. He insists. – came to my desk and told me to burn the research. When I asked him why –and also told him why I couldn’t do it because fire and spaceships don’t mix too well– he went completely delirious and scolded me. When I refused him for the second time,” Hinata gulped. “He sent the android that he’d been working on after me. And the weird thing was that nobody on my team tried to stop him, or ask him why. Not even Ushijima. They all stared blankly.” He shuffled in his seat. “Now there’s a freaking android looking for me in the ship. I used my frequency-distributor to digitally put my appearance dot in the engineering department but I don’t know how long that’ll last.” He shivered. “This place is so cold.”  
Keiji stared at him blankly. She had so many questions about what happened to him. For instance, how did the leader of chemistry of the species build an android? That was not his job at all, he shouldn’t have known how to do so. Yukie knew medical procedures of building an android. Kenma knew the technical parts of it. How did Oikawa Tooru, a chemist, build an android? An android meant a human-robot hybrid, did it not? Medical procedures had not preferred to make an android for years. It was for desperate patients, really. And it was absolutely forbidden to build one without that very person’s permission. Keiji guessed there probably have been more than a few causes of android-making in history but she never would’ve guessed one of them could be at a government-approved spaceship. Did the android use to be a member of the crew or had he illegally got onto Sirius? A fugitive? Was Hinata even telling the truth?

“Hold on… An android?” she asked confusedly, to which Hinata nodded violently.

“He –I mean I am guessing it’s a he– has jet-black hair and bright blue eyes that glow –with black sclera. And his expression said something worse that I wish you social awkwardness, forever.” He sure was terrified of the android. Though, Keiji wasn’t sure if Hinata didn’t make up that last part. 

Keiji’s mind was racing with thoughts. She glanced towards Hinata; who was, well, shivering harder. He had to go somewhere warmer –but Keiji knew he’d refuse to leave her side now until the issue with the android settled.   
She sighed, and grabbed a towel. Nonetheless all of that, she had to clean the mess Hinata had done first. He, being a Terran, probably wasn’t able to function properly. Their global warming had eradicated any temperature that was below 6°C, few decades ago; so there was no way he’d be used to a temperature like -7°C. She then drained the towel in the small sink. 

“Wait a minute… aren’t you –” Hinata’s eyes widened with his realization. “You are the L.I.S.T.! Oh, oh no! I did not just do that.” His hyperventilation only stopped when Keiji put a hand on his head. 

“Hey, um, calm down. This is valuable information. I’m glad I was the one who got to hear it first.” And preferably last, since Sugawara is busy on the whole preventing the intergalactic war and captain is… well, possessed or replaced by a creature. “Just call me Akaashi.” Hinata looked at her for a few seconds.

“I, uh, sure. As you wish.” He managed to babble out the right words. Keiji was too exasperated to give him a supportive smile. She felt as if she’d been babysitting a few elementary school kids.

“Alright. Now, let’s go.” Maybe Hinata wasn’t so bad. And maybe whatever had happened to him could lead Keiji somewhere.

“With that thing outside? Sir, there’s no way. Madame. Sorry.” Or, maybe not. Convincing Hinata took some time, but he finally agreed to leave the room under one condition: they stuck together.

And that’s the story how Keiji got an overly attached companion/sidekick/friend –not necessarily for this very mission. 

***  
“Hinata.” 

“Yes sir! Madame!” Keiji mentally face palmed. How did she get into this, again?

“You can let go of my arm, yes?” She offered.

“Oh. Of course.” Hinata let go of her arm.

“Thanks.” Keiji had no idea why she was thanking him.   
They had just arrived the chambers of I.S.T. –Keiji planned on investigating the sample that Hinata risked his life (debatable) over.  
There were a few people working but since it was still the resting hours, chambers were pretty empty.   
She put the glass slide of the skin tissue to the microscope. And she observed. It was… fascinating but the data was not enough. She investigated the molecular structure more than ten minutes, before speculating.

“I literally can’t see anything wrong with this.” She said, to which Hinata nodded furiously. Keiji went on, “Maybe if I had some fresh and known tissue to compare it to…” at this point, she diverted her eyes to Hinata.

“Wh-what?” Hinata timidly asked.

“I need some of your skin.” Keiji asked in her I’m a scientist tone.

“But –but why?” 

“For scientific purposes.” She said, somewhat sounding sadistic.

“I know what a human skin tissue looks like, and so should you! Besides, I –happen to have Mr. Oikawa’s skin tissue, too.” Hinata sheepishly smiled as he handed her another glass slide. Suddenly, Hinata’s story didn’t seem to be much of an exaggeration.

Keiji’s face lit up. "Alright. Let's take a look." Oikawa wanted Hinata to burn the experiment because he didn’t want his own skin tissue to be observed. Keiji knew Mr. Oikawa was most definitely someone with an obsession over extraterrestrial cultures and so forth. So it was no surprise he kept a sample of his around his workshop. But how had Hinata acquired it? 

“Hinata,” Keiji said, toying with the glass slide. “Where did you get this? Be honest.” That was it. She’d used her mom voice on him, and that’s just about as far as Keiji would go. 

“I found it lying around. I swear! I didn’t know it was his until he yelled at me for stealing his stuff! It was on my table, really.” Keiji raised an eyebrow. Normally, she’d scold Hinata for messing with others’ private possessions and she’d send him to Daichi for a punishment –or she’d send him to Tanji if she was feeling extra cruel. But this time, it didn’t feel right. She didn’t want to invade a crew member’s privacy but… what if he was one of them? Heck, she didn’t even know what species they were –or if there actually were evil shapeshifters on board.  
Keiji’s never trusted anything other than her logic. But logic was insufficient in this case. She needed to find evidence before executing any decisions. The thing was, she had little to no evidence. President of Chemistry of Species was unstable. There was apparently a loose android on the ship. She had two samples and one potential one.

“I have an idea; why don’t we compare them digitally? I see I.S.T. has computers sufficient for that kind of investigation.” Hinata said, looking around. Whilst touring on a giant revolving seat. How old is he, Keiji thought to herself. His idea was simple, yet Keiji hadn’t thought about that. Must’ve been the stress.

“Good call.” Maybe Hinata wasn’t as bad as Keiji thought he would be. After all, he’d made it to the ship. He had to be something.   
She took two slides and placed them in separate hatches. There was only one thing to do left. And it wasn’t exactly a pretty job.

“Hinata,” She said, holding Hinata’s wrist. “How old are you?” She hoped it’d be enough of a distraction. She kept her tools ready, right under her palm.

“I… I’m eight –EEN! I thought you didn’t need my sample!” Hinata yelped, 

“I lied.” Eighteen? Holy hell, that was younger than Keiji expected. Older than Hinata looked, though. “Now we’re going to compare these.” She put the third slide in another hatch, and let computer do its work –Keiji never really tried to understand those machines. Surely she knew many of the things that are around her were computers –but she never liked them that much. They heated. They lagged. Keiji would rather do this by observing, but she didn’t have too much time on her hands. She had to admit, that computers of any kind could be painfully essential.   
They waited for three more minutes until the machine was done scanning the three of the tissues. Keiji shred the result paper off the machine.  
Her eyebrows rose, her pupils dilated from the surprise, and her skin turned a little bit blue because the flowage of her blood had increased. 

"What is it?" Hinata beamed next to her.

"Oikawa is... the blood sample and his skin tissue belong to the same creature." She whispered, grabbing Hinata and calmly walking out of the CS headquarters. Nowhere seemed to be safe for them to her, at that point.


	3. The Knuckle Nebula

“But that’s… impossible!” Hinata whispered excitedly. “Mr. Oikawa can’t be sharing these much common traits with –with an undiscovered species!” He was hyperventilating. Once again.

Keiji didn’t mind it that much, though. She had gotten used to the overly-dramatic reactions from the boy. It was normal. He was an excitable teenager human. Perfectly normal for him to need a way to channel his feelings out.  
The proteins on Oikawa’s skin tissue, perfectly matched the creature’s skin tissue’s proteins. That meant they were not only of the same species –but they were the very same living creature. Or a genetical copy. Keiji was pretty sure it was the first option, though.   
The creature’s DNA had three helixes –probably two of them were spare ones to shapeshift into anything they wanted to, and one of them actually carried the gene of the creature’s. The DNA thread that they’d transfer from generation to generation. That one, the single helix, perfectly matched the extra found on Oikawa's sample.  
Keiji did feel lots of different emotions at that moment. She felt numb, despite her small shock. She felt betrayed by someone she had only seen once or twice. She felt devoured by the species, as another living being. She felt curiosity as a scientist.   
But she knew she had to put those to their shelves, so she could mentally liberate herself. She had to let Keiji the Analyst speak.

“I’ll explain everything to you, but here isn’t safe.” She eyed the corridor. It was relatively crowded. “If you want to learn, meet me nearby the pipe room, two hours after the curfew.”

“Af –after?” He yelled out loud enough to steal a few attentions. Keiji did not resist the urge to roll her eyes this time.

“Yes. You really shouldn’t add the acid first. It’s dangerous.” Keiji professionally spoke. “I believe you are done for today. Good work. You are dismissed.” Keiji got up and took her lab coat off, leaving a confused Hinata behind, she left the hall.

“Huh?” Hinata stared at the door. What was he going to do now? He eyed the room –only to notice two other people were staring at him. “Wh–what?” He rudely spoke. Blond one chuckled, but with an evil glint on his eyes.

“I didn’t know they let school kids be in Sirius.” He said, approaching Hinata. Now that the guy was close, Hinata noticed how absurdly tall he was. He wasn’t human, was he? 

“I’m not a school kid!” Hinata exclaimed, maybe getting too excited with his arms. Blond raised a brow. He wanted to sass the boy further, Hinata could tell. But… he was hesitating. Hinata couldn’t see why.

“Tsukishima. What did I say about mocking with other people?” The brown-haired person, who was tall –but human tall– spoke softly; yet Hinata could hear some kind of menace, hidden inside his tone. Blond gulped.

“Stop bossing me, Yamaguchi –I’m older than you.” Blond –whose name was apparently Tsukishima– slightly pouted –as if he wasn’t used to this kind of reaction from the another guy. Strange.

“I’m simply trying to discipline you, my friend.” Blond gave the other one a complicated look. 

“Why are you so serious? What the hell happened?” Blond said. Yamaguchi’s eyebrows rose. Their attention was diverted. One of many perks of having a small figure –you could sneak out from anywhere and everywhere. Hinata didn’t really care about their quarrel –he had enough problems of his own. There was a bloodthirsty, terrifying, blue android who was after Hinata. The android’s goal wasn’t something that would benefit Hinata in any way possible. It was probably really dangerous for him to wander around on his own. Did he even stand a chance? He was sure he didn’t –but he was not anxious. Walking round the ship, he wasn’t scared at all. In fact, it kind of heartened his curiosity. Who was the android? Did he used to be a member of the crew? Did he get on the ship as a fugitive?   
Hinata would say his survival instincts were quite weak.   
Well, he was from Earth. Humans had nearly gotten themselves extinct a few years ago. At least he wasn’t the only one. Earth didn’t have too many humans left –most of them were in space, or other planets anyways. Good news was, Hinata was in space too. Not in some overly radioactive hell-hole that once was said to be a ‘paradise’.  
He walked all the way to his room. Nothing had happened on the way. Sighing relievedly, he opened the door. Then he face-hugged his bed.

***

“I think we should name the species first. Calling them creature is unsettling.” Keiji suggested. Her tone calmed Hinata down a bit.   
It was two hours and five minutes past the curfew. If they got caught, nothing could save them. Hinata, who drank way too much coffee to stay awake –not coffee coffee, like an alien drink who tastes like coffee and has similar effects. But definitely not coffee–, was in the brink of having a panic attack. No, he’d never had one of those. But he did know how panic attacks worked. He wasn’t having one. He wouldn’t be able to control himself if he was having one. He was fine. Very much fine, thank you.  
Keiji had explained him most of the things that she knew. Hinata –well, he was more than a little bit amused. He was terrified, actually. He believed Keiji in her theory, and he was sure that Mr. Oikawa was one of them. Or, maybe they’d replaced him. He wasn’t sure, and neither was Keiji. 

“Oh... right as always, sir.” Keiji turned from the brink of rolling her eyes. She had a feeling this is how Sugawara felt near her. Maybe she should start calling her Sugawara. 

“But not like a taxonomical name –that could draw attention– a nickname.” Keiji offered. She wanted Hinata to come up with the name, but she didn’t know why. Maybe she wasn’t feeling creative.

“Alright. How about dwellers?” Orange boy suggested. 

“That seems a little obvious to me. Try something else.” Keiji said, slightly wrinkling her nose out of habit.

“Um, painters?” He randomly said.

“No.” Keiji almost immediately shook her head.

“Saucers?”

“Hm Fits, humans did use to call alien spaceships flying saucers. I like it.” She approved. Hinata felt flustered once again, that was not why he’d offered the name, not at all. He was just thinking of a painting his sister did a while ago, back then they were teens. It was a guy chugging tabasco sauce. “Now, we should determine emergency sentences. For example; if we suspect that one of them might be onto us, we say let’s not sweat in space.” She said. They came up with various codes and memorized them. 

“Alright. That’s it for the night.” Keiji said, tucking her notebook in her belt. “Now, don’t go telling this around –it’s serious. Only I can do that.” Hinata looked like he was ready to throw a fit about that, but Keiji didn’t have time for that. “And we mustn’t be seen together lots. So, try not to talk to me during the day.” Keiji added. Hinata’s jaw dropped.

“Does that mean I’ll have to go to the CS? As per usual?” Hinata said, an anxious expression spreading across his face.

“Well… it is still your department.” Keiji murmured.

“But they’re trying to kill me!” He whisper-shouted. Keiji shushed him.

“Then, can you play sick for a few days?” She asked.

“I –I guess I can.” Hinata said, his expression’s hazardousness loosening. 

“Good. Then do that.” Keiji said. “You seem to be the kind of guy who would be good with tech. Are you?” She tilted her head. She could’ve gone to someone from engineering for that –it probably would’ve been better. But she didn’t really know anyone. There was Kenma, but Keiji couldn’t tell if the guy wasn’t replaced –or possessed. Hinata was safe, at least.   
When Hinata nodded solemnly. What a relief, she thought to herself.

“I mean –I probably can’t handle anything that involves complicated physics, but I think I can hack into the ship’s security system without them noticing. If that helps.” He fiddled with his fingers. Keiji held the boy’s shoulder.

“You bet it does.” She squeezed the shoulder before letting it go. “I suggest you rest first and then get to work. I’ll stick around a bit more.” She gestured to him to get up. Hypothetically speaking, Keiji wouldn’t really receive a punishment for wandering around after the curfew –her rank exceeded that point. And she required only three to four hours of sleep in a twenty-four-hour loop. But same didn’t go for Hinata. So she accompanied him to his room. It was a silent trip –but the silence was a peaceful one. Hinata bid a ghost-like thanks to Keiji, and that was it. That was the whole talk.  
Keiji sighed, silently touring Sirius the spaceship. She adored the ship itself, she’d admit. Walking around it felt like a trip to the future. Looking out the windows felt like she actually was powerful.   
Her feet had brought her to the Vision Area –where, mostly physicists, philosophers, and engineers hung out– which would almost always be far more crowded than Keiji’s comfort level. It was the first time she was alone in there.   
This was the center of the ship. Ceiling was shaped like a planetarium, but it was made of super-resistant glass polymer instead of metal; so you could see a part of the universe. And right now, it was facing the Knuckles Nebula –rad colored crazy space dust, Captain Bokuto refused to call them nebulas.   
Knuckle Nebula was named by an esteemed astronomer, who had died a long time ago; and no one knew why she had named it Knuckle. To Keiji, it did not resemble knuckles at all. It was dark blue at the edges, blue and white near the center of it. It looked so big, as if it was close enough that you could touch it. On the contrary, it was pretty far away. Probably more than Orb’s distance to their sun, Altair.   
Keiji sat down at an observing chair, which was initially a regular seat tilted so you'd face the dome -her neck had begun hurting. It was peaceful. Shapeshifters on board, peaceful crew members on board –universe didn’t really give a crap about all that. If shapeshifters took over the ship, most events in the universe would keep happening in the same way. Maybe there would be an intergalactic war. Maybe there wouldn’t be one. Who knows?  
She tried to identify celestial bodies that were vibrant. She couldn’t name much of them though –Pegasus Supercluster was mostly unknown. She knew the exact location of Polaris, even though she couldn’t see it. Maybe if she tried to find a telescope… no, it was far too late for that.  
Keiji didn’t require much sleep, but it was the first time she’d come to the Vision Area. Maybe it was because the area was kind of claimed by the engineers –at that point Keiji didn’t really care. She’d decided to come to the Vision Area more often.   
She was in a complete environment of serenity when someone made her almost jump out of fear. 

“May I join you, Akaashi?” An all too familiar voice asked. Keiji was afraid to turn to the owner of the said voice –she was afraid to see her.

“Sure, Captain.” She calmly spoke, as if it was the real Bokuto. Real one would’ve never said ‘may’. Unless someone was dying, or she was in a meeting. She hadn’t called Keiji by her last name since they spent six days in an underdeveloped society’s prison (that wasn’t exactly a field trip, let me tell you). 

“Thanks!” Bokuto-impostor grinned incoherently. Saucer offered Keiji some salted pomegranate seeds, which Keiji refused.

“You really shouldn’t eat this late, Captain.” Keiji stated. “Besides, you, as a human, need at least seven hours of sleep.” She said, as if she was scolding the real captain for not getting enough sleep. Yes, it was all pretend. This filthy creature wasn’t – 

“It’s Kotarou when we are not on our shifts. You know it.” Bokuto suggested, smiling endearingly. Keiji felt something melt inside her chest. 

The real Bokuto Kotarou. Keiji had to get herself together. She didn’t want to seem suspicious, so she had to stay at least a while more. Saucers had probably examined the crew members’ relationships with each other. What was her relationship with the captain? Keiji slightly smiled at the saucer –seeing Keiji smile always made Kotarou smile even wilder. Saucer, just looked at her and blinked.   
They were friends. They were companions. Keiji had saved Bokuto from dangerous situations, and vice versa. They were… something. Neither Keiji nor Kotarou was sure of what they were –and they had no intentions of changing the situation. They didn’t want their feelings to contaminate their current professional relationship.  
They were, probably, very obvious. Especially to Sugawara. 

“I –okay. Kotarou.” Keiji never called her that –she had always hung up on ranks. But after meeting Hinata… she could tell that it was such an unnecessary phase. “Why are you up this late?”

“Couldn’t sleep. So I wanted to see the most beautiful thing nearby.” Saucer looked towards the nebula. Keiji felt her cheeks burn with frost. 

“Oh, you mean the nebula, right? It is a sight worth seeing.” She managed to speak normally. 

“No. I’ve seen lots of nebulas.” Kotarou’s eyes averted towards Keiji. Keiji felt flattered –but she had to keep it together. Kotarou had never once called a nebula, simply a ‘nebula’. (Space dust, even crazier space dust, is that Mardi Gras beads, unicorn farts, looks like Elvis’ shirts, rad colored crazy space dust...) Keiji had to keep it together. As much intimate as this felt, this wasn’t Bokuto Kotarou. It was an impostor. 

“Oh. That’s natural. We’re in outer space.” Keiji said. 

“You know you could stop by the Main Chambers more often, right Keijee?” She said. Boy, the saucer acted very much like Bokuto –pronouncing Keiji’s name in at least twelve various ways, was one of the key points.

“I know, Kotarou.” Keiji said. This definitely was a saucer. She yawned a fake –but convincing– yawn. “You know what, I think we should go to our rooms and –” she was cut off by the saucer, who put her index finger to Keiji’s lips. She felt her cheeks stinging from the freeze –her face must’ve looked so blue.

“How about you come to my room?” Kotarou asked, her pupils as big as small olives. She slowly started leaning forward...  
No, her pupils are large because of the dark, Keiji told herself. She had to get it together, or so –  
She caught herself eyeing Kotarou’s plump lips.   
She snapped herself out of it. 

“I don’t think… that’s a good idea.” Keiji said. She had to act like she was too embarrassed, or the saucer might’ve suspected her. Her face showed plenty of color, so the presentation wouldn’t be such a problem. 

“So you –you don’t like me, after all.” Kotarou’s expression changed to a sad frown Keiji hoped she’d never see again on her face. She wanted to slap the saucer. Look for the real Bokuto Kotarou. Kiss the saucer, because it was in her body.

“No, it’s just… I’m just not… yes ready.” She’d mixed up the crew’s language with the common Orbian language. She hadn’t done that since she’d left Orbian Academy of Spacecraft and Instituted Sciences. Since she’d left home.

“I see,” Impostor took the package of salted pomegranate seeds, and got up. “Then… I’ll see you tomorrow.” She left the Vision Area, before Keiji could respond to her.  
In many ways, this had been beneficial for her goal. Nobody could successfully pretend to be Bokuto-in-bad-moods. Saucer could be good at acting; but it was impossible for it to simply pull off a Bokuto emo-mode, as Yukie and Konoha called it. It had been a good development. They could imitate acts and feelings but they couldn’t simply –  
Maybe she should’ve accepted the offer. She had seen Kotarou’s body. Maybe saucer’s copy of Bokuto was imperfect. She could’ve looked for flaws. Fingernails’ shapes. Hair roots. Moles. Maybe that would be more beneficial to the goal.  
But no, she couldn’t. That just was not possible. She wasn’t exactly experienced. What if Kotarou was still inside her own body? What if the alien was not a shapeshifter, but a parasite? She could never do that to her. It would be sexual assault. And she didn’t want to make love to an alien shapeshifter –who knew what microbes they carried? What if they created a disease by combining –  
Don’t think about that. That was out of question.   
She was pretty sure that saucers were shapeshifters. Telepathic parasites emitted certain waves of slight radiation –more radiation than human body emitted. In fact, every specimen of any species emitted their own, distinguishable frequency and that could be detected too –  
She had an idea. She just had to find an engineer. She knew engineers –Sugawara knew more engineers. She could ask him to help. She could pull this off.   
As she walked from Vision Area to her room, she felt hollow and numb; instead of feeling moved and motivated.   
Where had Captain Bokuto been, if that was a shapeshifter?  
Keiji felt something shatter inside her chest.


	4. Predpriyatiye 1

“They’re onto us,” the skin-dweller sneered. “We have to act now!” He pulled on his host’s lush hair. “I would never approve of this mission if –if I’ve known the captain was a woman!” He reproached. He stood straight, in a body that definitely was not his.

“Patience, boss. We all feel the same unsettling thing called dysphoria here.” The other skin-dweller hissed. “But it’ll be all over soon. After we take over everyone in the ship, we can reach the other parts of the universe.” Other skin dweller was clearly much more comfortable in the skin. Why not? It was a handsome skin, it was well-groomed, and its hair was adequately soft. Also, it disposed of a good smell.  
But, it’s joints ached a lot, apparently. It was a quite uncomfortable sensation –once you merged into the shape of a body, you had to have all glitches it had. Maybe it was because of an illness.  
His boss, who kept sneering in the corner, was nowhere near comfortable. The skin he was wearing was not even a man. It was always uncomfortable to be in a skin that was shaped differently than your own, but that did it. He hated being a human. He hated being a woman. He hated being this woman. He’d admit, she had copious amounts of muscle and physical strength –but she still was not nearly as strong as a common Maeledictorian. Maeledictorians did not have females. They had workers, and males. And they had the queen.

“No. They really are onto us. We could at least get rid of that… woman and kid. Bluish-grey abomination and the orange. For Kan's sake, I nearly kissed the hybrid. Gross.” He shuddered. Another one came in. The body he was wearing was as comfortable as it could get. Freckles on the body’s skin did look similar to small patches on his own skin. 

“No. Boss has to gain her trust first, she’s half-Orbian. It is not easy to startle them.” The Oikawa-shaped saucer one spoke.

“Why do you insist?” The one in Yamaguchi’s body narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“Relax, Lord Skeptical. I was just insisting on the fact that we have to go with baby steps. This is a big deal.” He rolled his –well, Oikawa Tooru’s– eyes. 

“The blorp kind of a nickname is that?” The other one said, trying to sound gritty. 

“Alright that’s enough!” Boss sighed. “There’s no point in fighting. He’s right,” he said, gesturing towards the Oikawa-shaped intruder. “We should go slower. I’m just feeling –queasy. A male human’s body is never comfortable for our kin, but female humans do take the cake. I constantly feel like I’m going to throw up."

“Maybe you just imitated a –a… pregnant human?” Yamaguchi-saucer’s eyes widened, as the saucer spoke with a lower pitch than Yamaguchi’s usual voice. 

“No. I’d know. I did beat her ass to a pulp –she’d say if she had a baby. Like I would show mercy.” Boss’ eyes lit up with excitement. It had been such a blast, beating the originals to the brink of death. Boss fed on the yapping of creatures begging for their lives. It made him feel powerful. He could kill anyone and everyone. But he didn’t kill unless it was war. He hadn’t even killed the originals. Yet. He couldn’t bring himself to kill, if it wasn’t for protecting the colony. His genome; hormones, nerves, muscles forced himself to protect the Queen. And he hated her for it. 

“But, you could think about it like, our mother protecting us.” Oikawa-saucer said, expression softening as he was reminded of the mother. 

“Queen has nothing to do with this. She doesn’t even care –there are too many of us to care.” He spat out. Maybe with a little bit of hate. A little bit. 

“Geez, boss. So gloomy as always.” Boss ignored Oikawa-saucer’s comment.

“Anyways, you two know what to do.”

“Or who to do!” Oikawa-saucer’s unnecessarily cheerful voice filled the air. Two other saucers stared at him. “Oh… that came out wrong, sorry.” Boss rolled Bokuto’s eyes, and face palmed. If only he wasn’t the most intelligent saucer I knew… he thought to himself.

“Just –please think before you speak. Your mission is clear: divide, replace, escalate. Now go. We mustn’t be seen together.” Boss said. Two lower-rank saucers nodded, and left with a considerable pace. Boss grinned, as he slid to the control room.

“Everything alright, co-captain?” He asked, with brows arched high and voice filled with sugar. What an idiot, co-captain of this ship was. Even a person that was not inside the main chamber all the time had figured out. Well, better for Bokuto-saucer. 

“Yes. Everything’s well, captain.” Sugawara smiled, as he mapped his thoughts on the saucers. Keiji had mentioned the name they’d decided to use to him.

“Alright. Is the engine ready for a jump?” Bokuto-saucer asked again, but with a slightly serious tone. 

“Yes, captain.” Kenma murmured. “Shall I?” He said, not looking away from the display in front of him. 

“Yes.” Bokuto-saucer said, yawning. Sirius the spaceship dashed to the front –or back, or left, or right, or down; as there are really no directions in space– as Kenma pushed a certain control handle. Sirius the spaceship was headed right towards the saucer home planet. Bokuto-saucer smirked as he was reminded of that. He popped open a salted pomegranate seed snack, and started munching on it. 

***

Tendou was fine. It was okay. That wasn’t his first time –that had happened before. QTL X-284 he had wrecked over a year ago was far more precious than this one. The… the Predpriyatiye 1. The Terra-Russian good that Kenma had bought just before the mission. Yep, he just had busted yet another piece of perfect piece of mechanic circuits that could be used as an oxygen converter. Or a generator. Or an emergency defibrillator.  
He wasn’t going to cry. Definitely not. Anger had totally nothing to do with tears.  
He wasn’t going to take his anger out of his tools –that would be childish, and cruel on his precious tools.  
He wasn’t going to scream a battle-cry from top of his lungs –that would be childish, too. And Supervisor Tanji would probably get mad at him if he yelled again. Who was by far, oldest person on the ship. Why wasn’t he retired, again?

No one has to hear your croaky teen-like voice in the workshop, Satori., the said supervisor thought, appearing right before Tendou’s workshop’s door. 

“Ni in his ti hiir yir criiky tiin-liik viice in thi wirkship, Sitiri.” He imitated, rolling his eyes.

You should address your supervisors with more respect, Satori.

“Well –maybe you should speak with me, like a human! With your mouth and all!” Tendou slightly raised his voice. Tanji crossed his brows.

Don’t mock me, boy. You’re clearly not human. , He gestured towards the roasted engine. You still can recover this engine. This is a test for you. Recover the engine, or I’ll suspend you from your workshop for a while. ,he left.

“But –a while? How long is ‘a while’? That’s… that could be a bit long, wouldn’t it? S-supervisor Tanji? Sir?” No luck. He was gone. Tendou sighed. He needed a minute. He needed a break. He splashed some water substance to his face, to drain some of that sweat and oil. He ran a skinny hand through his bright red hair. That damn old geezer. Always on Tendou’s feet. Always punishing him for not being an enough of an engineer. He got up.  
Then he eyed the engine. It leaked of kerosene from god knows where, it smelled as if Tendou’s hopes and dreams had died inside, and it was making a weird sound. Well, a weirder sound.  
Predpriyatiye 1 exploded.  
Tendou sighed.

***  
“Hello, I’ve come to abandon the potential tools that are actually parts of the perfect engine I flunked earlier this day. Oh, Wakatoshi, wasn’t expecting to see you.” Tendou, who obviously did expect to see Wakatoshi, said in a straight voice as he smiled. 

“Tendou. It’s always a pleasure to see you.” He looked worried –Tendou didn’t have to peek into his thoughts to know it was because of his lack of self-care. What could he say? Tendou was devoted to his job.  
Besides, there wasn’t really a point in changing during work-times anyways. They all got filthy.  
Tendou’s clothes weren’t going to get dirty for a while. He sighed sorrowfully. 

“Is everything alright?” Wakatoshi asked, once more. Concern that was oozing out of Wakatoshi had started bothering the heck out of Tendou. He realized that maybe he should answer him.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” Tendou sighed again.

“You do not seem fine, Tendou.” He raised a brow.

“I am. It’s just –Tanji suspended me for a week.” Tendou confessed. He awkwardly put a hand to his neck, massaging it. 

“What? But why?"

“Well, apparently this was necessary for me. I should have reached my full potential by now. He is hard on me because he wants me to surpass any and every engineer on the ship.” Tendou imitated his supervisor. Gladly, they were far away from eyes that could notice. Wakatoshi gave his friend a small, sympathetic smile.

“I’m so sorry. But Tanji does care about you. I genuinely think he wants you to be the next head-engineer. Fill in his shoes and all that.” Wakatoshi bluntly said, to which Tendou started gasping really hard –he wasn’t surprised at all, that was just how his kind laughed. He was not Terran.

“I don’t think –oh my god I can’t even talk!” Wakatoshi waited for his friend to finish with the gasp-laughing. “That’d be a waste of time though, Wakatoshi. I’ll never be as good as some engineers on the ship. I’d never catch up to them.” Tendou said, looking down at his feet –which were quite large compared to a human foot.

“Yes, but you don’t need to. You have something they don’t –” 

“Fast metabolism? Sarcasm? Rad hair? Filthy clothes? Fine, their clothes are filthy too.” Tendou murmured quickly. Wakatoshi frowned.

“No, I meant you have the qualities of a leader.” Wakatoshi said. Tendou let out a small oh. “Plus, you are talented. For god’s sake Tendou, you have four arms. Four. Do you have any idea how useful that is to someone who goes around fixing and building machines?” Wakatoshi spoke as if he was listing mere facts –which he was, but Tendou didn’t think so. 

“Yeah, but –” 

“No buts.” Wakatoshi looked at his watch. “Oh. CS-Pres is calling me. I have to go.” 

“Alright. Um, see you at lunch?” Tendou asked.

“Sure. See you later.” Wakatoshi replied, then turned away from his friend. Tendou unintentionally eavesdropped on Wakatoshi and his boss, whom he was talking to via his wristwatch.

“About time, Ushijima! Did you get the package?” Oikawa said. That’s odd… Tendou thought. Oikawa always called Wakatoshi by that silly nickname Ushiwaka. His thought pattern seemed quite different too. A difference that could only happen after a very intense trauma. His brain-waves were not even close to what they used to be. Huh. Maybe he's had a mouth jarring nightmare or something. No, Tendou didn't think so -he'd most definitely feel that.

“Yes, CS-Pres.” Wakatoshi did not seem to mind it. Maybe Wakatoshi finally convinced him to call him by a normal name. Maybe he had a twin. Who was also on board. Who was far more respectful towards his inferior officers.  
Even so, siblings’ brainwaves would not differ much, either –especially if they are maternal twins. 

“Good. Get it in here.” He stuck his tongue out to Wakatoshi. Still not that respectful, after all. “Good day, Satori.” He quietly closed the shuffle door.   
Something –some things– did seem fishy to Tendou.  
He didn’t think on it and went straight to his room. He blamed it on himself –he had just been suspended, what was going to do to pass time? He could hibernate a week. At least it’d pass by faster. But he would need to make certain adjustments for that, and let’s be honest: Tendou does not like making certain adjustments.  
It was highly possible that he would just lay around. Hang around Vision Area during shifts –it’s empty then. Maybe try to upgrade his halo-watch.  
He already felt bored.

***

Tendou heard the thoughts before the knock on his door. 

Get up, boy. You get to make yourself useful this week., Tanji was thinking. Tendou bounced from his bed. He could tell old man was not alone, and he had no time to adjust his room manually. 

“One second!” He shouted to the door. Footsteps of Tanji and presumably the middle-aged man stopped. Tendou raised all four of his arms, and restored his messy room via telekinesis. “Alright, come in.” He shouted, less loud.  
Tanji, did not bother to knock; he boldly opened the door and walked into the room. The silver- haired man with him –who happened to be someone important, Tendou could tell by the uniform– did knock the door, even though it was already open. Tendou tried not to accidentally read his mind. 

Co-Captain Sugawara wants to have a chat with you. Tanji thought-yelled. Tendou clutched his ears, not that it’d help.

 

“I can tell. You didn’t have to come, old man.” Tendou said. It was hard to ignore if someone’s thoughts were loud and strong.

Where are your manners? Tanji’s thoughts were practically so loud that Tendou barely restrained himself from making any sounds of distress. Not that Tanji knew how much his thought voice irritated Tendou. Not that he knew how to adjust the level of the thought.

“Left them at Frond.” He said. The other man was watching them in astonishment. Yes, Tendou could read minds. Yes, he was from a species that are nearly extinct because their reproductive systems had begun disappearing at the new borns –Tendou was not one of them, but it didn’t mean he’d love to have babies to protect his species. No, he wasn’t going to brainwash you. No, he didn’t want to tell your crush that you liked them. “I thought I had a suspension."

You did. But Co-Captain Sugawara needs your assistance. So now you don’t. Tanji thought. Tendou gritted his dentals.

“Will you please stop shouting? I hear you a bit too well.” He rubbed his lower-hands. 

Fine. I’ll let you talk to him now. Let me know of the details, no games. I’m skeptical about him. Tanji thought as loud as ever. Tendou 

“Fine. Please don’t think anymore, I’ll talk to him.” Tendou said, encouraging his supervisor to leave his room. Tanji raised his eyebrows and gave Tendou a besetting look. Tendou sighed and closed the door. He turned to Sugawara; who, despite his rank, awkwardly stood near Tendou’s mirror. 

“Sorry. My supervisor does not know how one properly speaks with thoughts yet.” Tendou released his gritted dentals. “Please take a seat, co-captain.” He said because common ethics forced him to. Oh, what an honor! Co-captain has come to see me, Satori! A basic engineer! He had never seen this guy before, and he clearly wasn’t comfortable having him around his territory. He wasn’t comfortable having anyone in his territory, though. Except from friends he trusts.

Sugawara did not sit.  
“Hello, Satori Tendou of Frond. My name is Sugawara Koushi, and I am here to talk with you.” Sugawara extended his hand, obviously expecting a handshake. Like an equal. Tendou did not know with which hand he should shake his hand with –so he chose randomly. He stretched out his upper-right arm to meet with Sugawara’s. Co-captain smiled and went on. “The matter that I am about to discuss with you is important. I’m pretty sure there are people who want you to spill up,” Sugawara said whilst letting go of Tendou’s hand. With a tone cold as liquid nitrogen. Tendou felt his stomach acid turn into liquid nitrogen. Holy cow, is he telepathic too? Tendou thought. “But you mustn’t. Do you understand?” Sugawara finished, looking directly at Tendou’s soul.  
He gulped. There was something about this guy. Tendou was sure he was human, and humans were not telepaths. There was no way he’d know what Tanji had said to him earlier. But he somehow… knew? He was the co-captain, of course he knew. Aura around him was intense, a mix of a bittersweet past and light memories of friends and family. But beneath all that, there was a darkness of determination as if –  
“Do you?” Sugawara repeated his question. Tendou blinked, he was startled. He lost his grip on that part of co-captain. He felt ashamed for poking Sugawara too much.

“Yeah. I mean –yes, of course.” He slowly spoke. He started rubbing his hands.

“Good,” Sugawara smiled. “As I said, this is a delicate matter. Have you ever met an android?” He said, smiling as if he was a child that drew something for his parent. Tendou stared at him for a while. That sentence could be the beginning of a tall chat, Tendou could feel it in his carbon fiber bones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. This actually started as a way for me to practice English, but then grew into... well, this. My love for linguistics, writing, Haikyuu, and space has collapsed into this fic tbh. Feel free to point out my mistakes if I've got any.
> 
> My Tumblr: [https://koala--fication.tumblr.com]()


	5. Renowned Menace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dunno if anyone actually reads these but!! I'm sorry it's a late update my laptop had issues.

“I hate to admit but… I think you’re right.” Tendou was sitting in his comfortable armchair –he had preferred a simple, dark red, velvet armchair over a sofa. Quite an ordinary one, really. Sugawara, who was seated on Tendou’s bed, had spent three hours in his room with him so far. Tendou, who did not appreciate having strange people anywhere near his room, certainly was not disturbed by anything that Sugawara’d said. “I mean –some people did start acting unlike their usual selves, but I didn’t really regard it as something important.” He shifted in his seat, sipping from a mug of warm coffee in his bottom hands. Sugawara’s intoxicatingly sweet smile filled the room. Seriously –how could a guy this sincere have such a firm personality?

Sugawara’s stern gaze over the mug he’d been drinking coffee from suddenly zapped towards Tendou. “Really? Who, if I may ask?” He asked in an intimidating way. Tendou gulped. He so had not signed up for this. Why was this happening? Should I tell? he thought to himself. 

“Well, Mr. Oikawa’s brain waves are completely different from what they used to be –I can’t help but to notice those things. So unless he’s had a trauma with a smidge of psychological enlightenment, I think he’s a saucer.” That was it. Co-captain of Sirius was going to think that Tendou was a curious dipshit who couldn’t help but to peek into other people’s lives. But he couldn’t help it. He hadn’t asked to be the first one to know who’s got a crush on who. He hadn’t asked to determine who has diarrhea without asking them. He hadn’t asked to be the telepath that his species had waited for longer than five centuries. He hadn’t asked to live a life that its path had already been formed.   
So that’s why he ran to space. Why he’d gotten himself banished from his home planet. His twin sister was a telepath too, Tendou was sure she’d be enough. 

Sugawara thought about it, whilst scratching his stubble that had begun forming on his chin –he hadn’t had the chance to shave this morning. “Maybe. We’ll look into it.” He finally said.   
Oh. He was pretty sure Oikawa was one of them.  
Wakatoshi was not safe at all.   
Tendou glanced at the clock –nearly lunchbreak. He had twenty more minutes. 

“I’m glad we are agreeing here,” Sugawara left his mug –only half of it empty– on Tendou’s nightstand. Tendou shifted in his seat, placing his mug on a stool via telekinesis. Sugawara’s eyes widened, only slightly so, by astonishment. 

“I’ve got one more question though and I think it’s a really important one: you told me that this Akaashi person had verified that these saucers were shapeshifters,” Sugawara nodded solemnly. “Then, are you looking for the real ones? Originals? Dwarek, our bloody captain is –” Sugawara jumped out of the place he’d been sitting to silence Tendou. 

“Careful. Walls might have ears,” he gazed towards the door, eyeing it suspiciously. Tendou put Sugawara’s hands away from his mouth. Yeah. As if they didn’t have ‘ears’ when Sugawara was explaining the whole thing to Tendou.  
Yeah. They definitely could’ve done this via telekinesis. Sugawara’s first intention was that, probably. But after seeing the annoyance Tanji had been bringing to Tendou… but then again, what co-captain would risk something this big? 

“There’s literally no one but us here, nor there. You just don’t wanna hear the harsh truth –I can relate to that; I won’t say a thing.” Tendou put both mugs to the small counter that could be considered a mini-kitchen via telekinesis. The amount of astonishment Sugawara watching stuff flying had not differed as the time passed. “So? Are you looking for them?”

Sugawara gulped. “We are, but…” he sighed, troubled. “Shimizu and I are doing our bests. We don’t want to involve too much people into this mess, mostly because we don’t know who to trust. But, the truth is,” Sugawara exhaled louder than his last few sighs. “We need help.” He finished off without a smile –he was wearing a frown. Huh, that was rare. 

Tendou’s eyes, they were quite bigger than an average Terran’s eyes. Evolutionists say it is because of the natural dimness of their home planet, Frond. Tendou says, for the element of surprise.   
Because a Frondian’s eyes can narrow three times faster than a Terran’s, to the exact same size.  
Tendou’s eyes narrowed.

“Ooh, I see what this is now,” He said. He threw a wild smirk at Sugawara, who was trying his best to keep his straight face. He was not succeeding. It amused Tendou. Well, he so was sure his second, third, and fourth chins were showing as he grinned –but at this point, he didn’t really care. “You need the telepath to find them.”

“N –no, I mean –” Sugawara managed to cackle out. Then his face fell. “Okay, fine. That’s exactly what I’m asking. Please?” Sugawara’s light pout filled the air. Tendou was 84% sure co-captain carried Veela genes. Somehow. Harry Potter was based off of real events, wasn't it? Tendou didn’t think so. Maybe he just liked humans –besides his old and cranky supervisor, probably.   
It was going to be hard for him to decline his offer.

“Look, co-captain. I see this is a huge issue and I’d gladly help in every other aspect I could –but I just can’t use telepathy to find them.” Tendou looked at three of his palms. Sugawara frowned.

“I’m cannot force you. But we do need to find them as soon as possible –their lives might be in danger.” Sugawara’s aura had become darker –he had gotten frustrated that Tendou didn’t accept the offer. But something was still off, he just couldn’t pick it. Tendou had never even met the co-captain before that night –but he somehow felt something fishy about the man. Aura was… death glazed. Tendou lightly gasped: Sugawara had killed another person before.  
Okay, chill. You know this ship’s full of ex-combatants. That does not prove anything. He seems like an emotional guy, being in battle sure has had scarred him for life. Right, Tendou thought. He felt he never ever wanted to see another death again and –  
No. That was enough. Tendou was not going to look further. He was so over his limits of nosiness –anything greater than the current aura reading he had going on would be irrevocable, by means of telepathy. Tendou couldn’t invade one’s privacy without asking them first, it was against everything he ever believed in.   
He sighed. No matter what, he felt like he shouldn’t anger Sugawara. 

“Co-Captain, I would love to help you find our lost crew members: I myself did notice some things weren’t adding up.” Tendou spoke softly, dropping the grin. Sugawara’s aura turned brighter, only slightly so. Tendou clicked his tongue. “But, I can’t use my telepathy. I’d have to scan the entire ship at once and honestly I don’t think that’s possible. I –I could help at technical stuff too, if I may. I’m suspended anyways.” Sugawara’s head tilted.

“I see. Thank you. That’s too bad.” His aura had slightly darkened again; but this time it was by sorrow, not anger. “Could you… look out for saucers? You mentioned something about brainwaves…” Tendou stopped Sugawara.

“Of course. Actually, if I’m not mistaken there should be medical records that include brainwave functions of the crew, at the medical database. I could build something that could detect the brainwaves and –” Tendou was speaking excitedly, until Sugawara interrupted him. 

“We could detect the saucers and possibly find the lost ones. Yes, that’s brilliant!” Sugawara joined him in his enthusiasm. “I think that’s a good idea, Satori. Oh, by the way, I think Akaashi Keiji from I.S.T. would be delighted to help you with the machine. I’ll get you the recs somehow.” Sugawara grinned.

“I.S.T.?” Tendou raised his eyebrows, questioning. He wasn't fully aware of the ship's departments and such -why should he care?

“Identification of Species Team. Keiji is the leader of the team –and very much aware of the current condition of Sirius.” Indeed, Sirius is in a… sirius condition. Tendou mentally tormented himself with the bad pun. Sirius-ly? I thought I could do better.  
Enough with the Sirius puns, brain. I'm Sirius this time.

“Leader? That’s odd. Scientific teams generally have directors, or intendants.” Tendou, recovering from a few more Sirius puns, said. Sugawara simply smiled proudly. 

“I.S.T. is not like any other scientific teams,” He started, nearly grinning. “They have to be physically and mentally fit –because at every planet we stop by, they have to head out first for expedition. To observe and note the species. To see if we could co-operate with the dominant species of the planet, or if they’re still very under developed for that kind of co-operation. That’s why nearly half of them are made up from diplomats, and linguists. Part of them know how to decipher unknown runes within limited time. Part of them could use the chemicals at the completely foreign territory; to infuse chemical reactions that astonish inhabitants, or distract them. And –” Tendou had to cut him off. Unnecessary amount of explanation had bored him.

“Alright, co-captain. I understand. They’re different,” He said with a smile. “I’ll contact her.” He honestly declared.

“Good. You could find her on the east wing of the ship.” Sugawara added, apparently with no intention of leaving Tendou’s chambers soon enough. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Tendou smiled –but the smile felt more advanced. His teeth clenched more than it should have, his eyes narrowed immensely, his jaw hurt. It felt as if it was the –  
Oops, he’d thought. He had done it again. His ‘native’ smile. A smile that terrified all other creatures but Frondians. He then quickly withdrew the sheepish curve that his mouth had taken the form of, ascanning Sugawara’s expression for any bad signs of his health. Sugawara; who was deeply perplexed, but at least not terrified by Tendou, got up from his seat.  
Yeah. He had screwed up another promotion, or a possible acquaintance, or maybe even a friend. Way to go, Tendou.  
Yeah. He’d see himself out –even though the room was his.  
Yeah. Things had gotten quite awkward for Tendou. He’d have to leave the ship. He could build a life to himself. He’d live in the woods, away from any other living thing, so that he’d never paralyze anyone from fear again. Maybe he’d get an Earth dog –Tendou’s natural smile had no effect on Earth dogs.  
It was to his surprise, when a certain co-captain had scoffed gently. 

“So, was that the renowned ‘menacing smile’ of Frondians?” He chuckled. “Believe me, it would’ve worked quite well, if I had not already seen it all myself or that you were not part of the crew.” He cleared his throat. “Although I’m not so sure if it’d actually paralyze anyone –it’d maybe give small kids nightmares, but that’s all.” He patted Tendou’s right shoulder. It was not Tendou’s turn for astonishment. Co-captain hadn’t even batted an eye? Surely, Tendou had never let his guard down so far, even when he was with his closest friends. His take on the menacing smile was solely based off of… myths. He scoffed the human way, lightly. For someone who despised his own kind to a certain extent, he hadn’t thought of this manner with open mindedness. He had thought just like his people: with strict beliefs and slight bigotry.   
He did not feel so proud of that.

“I –” He started off, but he did not go on. His mind was full of thoughts, yet he did not know what to say. His voice was weaker than Sugawara’s ears could catch.

“Now, I’ll be going to lunch. I trust you do the same –but there’s this one thing: we must not divert any attention towards us. So, I’d be quite pleased if you left your chambers at least twenty minutes after I do.” A killer smile stroke Tendou’s eyes. Honestly, he was nauseously sweet, and that had started to make Tendou dizzy. How –how could a person with such deep trauma hidden beneath only thin layer of serene memories be so sweet? He definitely had some Veela in him.   
He disoriented Tendou’s thoughts; and as a descendant of a species that has telepathic gifts, Tendou did not appreciate being confused. 

***

Keiji blinked, as she felt number than she ever did. She stared at her wall for a while, before getting up.  
She couldn’t get up. Her legs had betrayed her. She had avoided her daily dose of cold intake, now it was taking its toll on her knees. It wasn’t anything lethal, but Keiji was going to have some serious joint aches during the day. She murmured tainted words in Orbian, and forced herself to get up.  
Her legs felt as if they would shatter into millions of muscle fibers. Her blood felt like a weak acid in her veins and arteries. Didn’t matter to Keiji. She definitely did not appreciate the feeling, but it was there and she could do nothing about it –maybe except lying down and waiting for it to wear off, whilst holding ice compresses. That would tke the strain off of her body, but not her mind. She had to fine the captain. The real one, not the replacement that tried to take advantage of her.   
It wasn’t like there had never been a cluster of thoughts at the corner of her mind, screaming what if there never was a saucer to begin with? What if that was the real captain and you’ve just ruined everything? You’re a damn fool, Keiji, and so on. Keiji did not had the luxury to pay attention to those thoughts –they were immensely based on her emotional responses. This situation required her analysis, her logic, and her intelligence. Sugawara trusted her to untangle this mess.   
You, on the other hand, would never lose your cool even if Kotarou was your lover. She remembered his words. Keiji had to pull this off. For the crew, who was near the danger of contamination. For Sirius, which most of Virgo Cluster’s scientific studies relied on. For Captain Bokuto, who had been replaced.  
Right. Keiji didn’t even know if the body was the captain’s or not to begin with. Captain was allergic to pomegranate, but it was nothing serious. It only made her digestive system go nuts. Keiji hadn’t heard any stomach grumbling on the bridge lately; but maybe the saucer was able to control autonomic responses, as well as somatic ones. She didn’t know for sure, though. Everything felt ambiguous. A little too ambiguous.   
She had to evaluate her thoughts. It could be a lot easier if she wrote somewhere but she wouldn’t take the risk of leaving substantial evidence. If only there was someone to talk to. Someone with more experience than Hinata. Someone who had to worry less than Sugawara.   
An unsure knock on her door made Keiji’s already unstable balance dampen. She didn’t fall right away; it was twenty seconds before her bottom met the hard floor. She unintentionally made an oof noise.

“Sir? Ma’am? Miss Akaashi? Leader of…” Hinata’s voice came out as sharp as it could. Keiji mumbled under her breath, and got up to open the door.

“What is it, Hinata?” She stood straight, subtly leaning on the door for strength. Boy before him got surprised as he saw her.

“Your… your eyes are… have you slept?” He asked, trying to be kind but obviously failing. It was alright –Keiji never cared that much about ethics. 

“Yes, I have. I’m just late on this week cryo dose.” She answered him in a silky voice that also indicated he shouldn’t ask any more questions on this subject. “Why did you come? Did something happen?” Keiji asked in a serious tone.

“Yes –I mean no! Si –ma’am!” Hinata yelped. Keiji raised a brow. Definitely, something had happened. She stared at the younger boy.

“CS member Hinata Shoyo. You must have a valid reason to visit my chambers prior to the official shift start. You have disturbed my rest. Spill,” Yeah, Keiji definitely felt sadistic today. She dipped her voice in velvet-like threat, and gleamed her eyes in intimidation. “Or I’ll ask my good friend Daichi for a fitful punishment for you.” She had talked to this Satori once or twice –but she also knew he wouldn’t back down from being a judge. Being a natural telepath made him a must have on the judge crew –Keiji always felt lawyers’ and diplomats’ rage towards the guy. Well, who could blame them? They had worked hard to get what they had today. Keiji understood, but she did not acknowledge. Of course, Hinata’s actions would be redeemable and it wouldn’t even make it to a trial, if Keiji hadn’t happen to be a senior officer. But to be fair, no senior officer of this ship would have someone deal with the complications of a trial over something this small. She watched as the boy’s eyes flutter with fear. 

“I –sir. I do… have something important to share.” He said almost immediately, fiddling with his fingers. His current state was immensely nervous –and Keiji would fail to say that it didn’t bring her slight joy. But, she also felt bad for the kid –she had acted rude towards him. Her grandma would’ve been very disappointed and ashamed.  
Good. 

“Well? What is it, crewmember?” Keiji had gotten bored of Hinata’s frightened state. And she did wonder what he had to say. So, to encourage him, she curved her lips towards her ears, only a little. An act that seemed genuine, but was not. Hinata didn’t mind the honesty behind it though.

“Ah –it’s about Mr. Oikawa. And the a –android.” He said. Keiji nodded. It was natural that he didn’t want to talk about it then and there.   
Hold on –they had spent quite amount of time in front of Keiji’s door. No one had past the hallway –still, they had to be careful. Keiji mentally scolded herself for that. 

“Alright, crewman. We shall discuss it on our way to breakfast.” She exclaimed, and attempted to leave the room.

“But sir! I mean, ma’am!” Hinata’s eyes went wide from shock. This guy, Keiji thought. She tapped her right foot on the floor, impatiently. 

“Hinata, pick one. Rather than that, what is it?” She calmly asked. 

“Well –it’s nearing the twelfth hour of the loop, so lunch is going to commence soon. And –you’re not wearing your proper uniform, sir.” Keiji looked down to see her baggy University sweatpants and an old, black shirt that featured the ancient band of AC/DC. “Sir, I didn’t know you liked classical music.” He said, his voice carrying the ghost of a snicker.   
Keiji’s stomach dropped. Oh, no. She thought. Out of all times to get coldsick and oversleep… She had to pick that exact time. The time that her cold-bloodedness was needed most. Oh, no.


	6. Breakroom Dramas

Fortunately; Keiji Akaashi’s lived a life of order, peace, and logic. One late start could only damage her career so much. She could act as if she’d just left the I.S.T. main chambers for lunch, which she did even though it made her feel like an irresponsible piece of crap. She wouldn’t get into any trouble even if she was caught, because she was under the effects of coldsickness. Even if she did, Sugawara would do anything in his power to prevent her from getting expelled –and it was merely impossible for the argument to go there.  
Her mind was more clear, now that she’d put on her emergency blizzard chest plate. She knew what she had to do –not by order, though. She had to earn the trust of an engineer. She had to find a possibly stray but likely controlled by a saucer android on the spaceship.   
She had to check in with Dr. Shirofuku first, though. If Keiji happened to caught herself, disturbed with the infamous disorder or its effetcs, she was to go see a medical personnel immediately; but after a certain… negligence that was caused by Keiji’s stress and her fondness over energizing substances, this medical authority that Keiji checked in with had to be Yukie Shirofuku: the main medical attendant. Captain Bokuto’s oldest friend, both were from the Alpha Centauri colony.   
Keiji had no personal quarrel with Dr. Shirofuku. She respected the doctor, as she was the youngest person ever to receive the Award of Wren –the scientific merit that carried most prestige. She had made it to the Sirius shortly after receiving her award, and had managed to become the main medic in five short years –that was before Bokuto had even graduated from the University. Keiji held a distinct admiration towards her –she was a person of both sense and sentiment. Her decisions were instant, on spot, satisfying, and logical. Alright, maybe it wasn’t only admiration –Keiji was envious of her, also.  
Also, she would not deny the fact that she was deeply intimidated by the doctor –Keiji suspected that sometimes, Dr. Shirofuku would tease her over –  
Thud.  
She determinedly stepped her stance before the door, briefly knocking the side of the wall to stimulate the doorbell circuits. Doors flung open into her face. Behind them, stood Dr. Shirofuku. Keiji had not anticipated to see her so soon –she’d usually run tests on space bacteria or exasperate the life out of her assistants by bickering about how usage of violet experimental goo’s intention as a glue was not in order. Keiji’d never seen her answer a door.  
On contrary to Dr. Shirofuku’s expression of solid enthusiasm and curved lips, Keiji’s face formed a surprised frown and an open mouth. 

“Merry midday, Keiji!” She said, grinning like a Cheshire cat, “I have everything you need for your annual checkup.” She said. I guess she just… loves her profession a lot. Keiji tried to convince herself, as she was gently mauled towards the hospital bed. She gulped once, and she didn’t even bother to keep it stealthy.   
Maybe twice. But not three times.  
Dr. Shirofuku witnessed all her gulps, which made her grin to grow to the maximum extent. She liked teasing Keiji –who didn’t? Her reactions were amusing. Kotarou’s reactions to Keiji getting her checkup for the coldsickness was more than that. Other doctors’ and nurses’ snickers and whispered gossips –it felt like she was home.   
Yukie did enjoy her job most. 

***

“You seem awfully quiet today, Tendou. Are you sure everything is alright?” This question; Tendou was expecting, but he wasn’t ready to answer. He smiled –the human smiley smile of course– to his best friend.

“Why, of course, Wakatoshi!” He fiddled with his food. “I am just feeling rather contemplative today.” Chewing a relatively big bite made him speak less clear. Wakatoshi raised his eyebrows.

“Then, contemplate with me.” He offered. 

“Oh. But I don’t think this is that sorta thing.” Tendou’s eyes narrowed slightly. Not because he felt threat or wanted to give away threat or anything like that; the lights had begun hurting his eye. Dwarek, how had he missed his workshop.

“What kind of ‘thing’ is this, then?” Wakatoshi asked. Tendou knew that he didn’t mean his question to come out as if it was a philosophical one, asked as a rhetorical question –but it had. Shame, it was. He had to think of an answer.

“You know –one of those personal growth trips.” He mimicked with his other three hands that were not holding a fork. 

“A trip? To where, exactly?” Tendou scoffed at his friend’s inability for understanding metaphors. Wakatoshi bent his head. 

“If only I knew.” He diverted his attention back to his plate. Dammit, Tendou. This is no time to be poetic! Tendou thought. Wakatoshi, who still did not seem to understand the commotion, decided not to penetrate the silence. For further good –he knew Tendou was troubled. One did not need to have telepathic abilities to deduct that. 

“So, Wakatoshi, what will you be doing today?” Tendou said, in the certain hope of distracting the subject. He didn’t want to talk about it. Whatever it was. Tendou was fairly certain that Wakatoshi was not a saucer. His actions proved so. He still was Tendou’s best friend, he still was an esteemed member of CS –but he still had to make sure. He had to test him in a way that only he would understand. And, maybe only he could prove to anyone else. 

“I will run some tests on the specimens that I.S.T. retrieved four days ago. I believe it will last me three hours to finish the experiment, and I will need another two hours for the results.” 

“Ah, you’re busy tonight. I thought maybe we could play scrabble or something, but I guess not.” Tendou stabbed one of his roots. Wakatoshi shook his head. They would play scrabble fairly often –at first this was an attempt to improve Tendou’s language skills –there were universal translator, obviously. He just wanted to learn one of the human languages. – but now it was just for entertainment. “I wish I was that busy. I’m suspended.” He ate the root that he’d stabbed.

“I know, Tendou. Still, you can engage yourself in several activities. Do you remember those books I recommended?” Tendou, with guilt, tilted his head. 

“Yes.” He did. But… the thing was… They were BORING. Wakatoshi might have enjoyed certain elements of Jane Austen or Emily Brontë books, but to Tendou reading them would be no different than staring into a rock tablet from Sumerians. It would occupy no other thought than BORING in Tendou’s mind. 

“You may read them.” Wakatoshi offered the obvious option, as he wiped his mouth clean with a napkin.

“I’d… I’d rather not. I don’t like the –setting. Too old.” Tendou complained. Wakatoshi raised his eyebrows.

“X-Men is fairly old, too. I recall you enjoyed its comic books and movie adaptations.” He stated. Tendou frowned. That was only because not all characters were human! Even though they were written in such human standards, they were diverse and –ah. Who was Tendou kidding, again? It was impossible to talk your way out of Wakatoshi the Captain Obvious. 

“It’s all too lovey-dovey.” He kept on with his complaints. Wakatoshi gave him a long, lecturer look.

“I think you should give them a chance. You’ve only read their summaries, which are written behind their backs. You are judging those books by their covers.” Wakatoshi chirped. Tendou sighed. He was right. No more, no less.

“Fine. I’ll give it a shot.” He lazily placed his fork on the finished meal. He did intend to converse a little bit more with his friend, until something yanked away his attention from Wakatoshi.   
It was an ordinary looking woman who was staring at Tendou, but not in an intimidating manner. An ordinary looking woman who wore an elite badge. An ordinary woman who seemed as if she wanted to tell Tendou something important. That must be her.

“Well, I gotta run.” Tendou said, holding his tray with his lower palms. His friend looked up, raising a brow. Unusual for Tendou to leave early, it was. He hadn’t finished his meal; and even if he had, he’d always wait for Wakatoshi. Maybe he is busy as I am, he thought.

“See you later, then.” He murmured as he checked his watch for today’s CS venue. Six hours of experimental work, then he’d be allowed to use his free time to further his second thesis. 

“Later,” Tendou spoke in a raspy voice, with some serious incorrect pronunciation; then got up from his seat –his eyes lingering on the spot L.I.S.T. used to stand. Wakatoshi frowned: was his friend’s language abilities regressing?

Tendou paid no attention to the table he’d just left. After leaving his tray, he went to investigate the spot that Keiji’d been. She was nowhere to be found. Weird. He let out a stiff breath. 

“Tendou, from engineering.” How could a voice that was as calm as the numbing dual sunset of Frond be so startling? Because Tendou was startled. Keiji was standing behind him, he turned back to face her.

“Y- yes. That’s me. Sir.” He replied, most of the speech was done by his subconscious mind. He cursed himself, telepathically.

“I see you’ve got some free time on your –er, hands,” Keiji was not sure if she was being racist, but at this point it was too late to fall back. “Would you mind stopping by I.S.T. chambers? Our heater seems to have a malfunction.” 

“Right now? That would not be problematic, sir.” Tendou replied. Keiji gestured towards a corridor that obviously did not lead to the I.S.T. chambers –he didn’t protest; he followed her for quite a while. A unique rhythmic ticking sound was surging as their shoes kept hitting the metal surface; a ticking noise that became clearer further they went. Corridors weren’t so full anymore, Tendou and Keiji were the only ones there. Walls began narrowing, to the point where two people could barely fit at the same time, if they were walking side by side that is. Their path began consisting more and more cables, after some point Tendou was not sure if there was still a path underneath his feet. The metallic ticking noise gave its way to a rubbery noise that was similar to the sound that gym shoes made with smooth surfaces.   
The environment got quite chilly as they walked. Tendou found himself clutching his arms closer to his torso to reduce head abduction. His breath etched damp into the cold air. His teeth began chattering, he couldn’t bear with the chill.

“Is the temperature alright?” Keiji, who seemed to be unfazed by the drastic shift of temperature, said. 

“’I’m c -cool.” He said, forcing the frown off of his face and making hand-guns to the open air. Keiji raised her eyebrows, she was not sure if he meant that he was doing fine, or that he felt cold. Nevertheless, she handed him a wool blanket. His pointy teeth were chattering like there was no tomorrow. Tendou was caught off-guard by the sudden change in his bodyweight, thus he lost his balance. Keij helped him regain it. 

“Apologies, that was necessary. It’ll get a whole lot colder. But you have to bear with it for the sake of privacy.” She let go of his upper left arm, and kept walking. Tendou solemnly nodded; gripping the edges of the blanket with all his arms, covering as much skin as he could with it.   
Ultimately, they arrived at the location that’d provide them the most secrecy. Tendou didn’t even think Sirius was that large –then he realized with the cold he was subjected to (he could feel his joints slowly lose their ability to move smoothly, and it was bothering him.); it was likely that outer space was just a titanium plate away. He shuddered, from both cold and daze.   
L.I.S.T. that most crew-people adored, looked around in vary before taking a manual screw driver shaped key out of her pocket. Tendou gasped in utter shock –was she not aware that those had been forbidden for good… a great deal of time ago? He thought only he had one of those on this ship! His gawking must’ve had leaked out, enough to reach Keiji’s radar. Her ears twitched. 

“It is true. This,” She raised the key. “Is illegal. At those solar systems which are members of the Union. I, for one,” Her lips curve up, to form a half-blown smirk. “Am not from any of those systems.” She unlocked the door, not opening it. 

“Well, let’s hope everybody manages to keep their secret,” He momentarily let go of the comforting wool blanket –gritting his teeth at the chill’s cool welcome– to reach the pocket of his light jacket. He pulled out a screw driver shaped key, only difference being their size, before neatly tucking it back inside his pocket and grabbing the blanket for life support. 

“Indeed so, engineer.” Keiji replied. “Though however you certainly would get into trouble for possessing one. I could, but I wouldn’t.” She deadpanned. It was alright, Tendou somehow knew she wouldn’t tell. Somehow? Scratch that. He was a frickin’ telepath. He knew she wouldn’t snitch on him because he was one. “Now, open that hatch. No, the one that’s above –yes that one.” Tendou followed her instructions carefully. Still, to this day, he doesn’t think he’d ever be ready for all the winter-gear falling on him.

“What the –hygah!” Mark these as the last words of Tendou Satori: hygah!

“Oh. I forgot to mention that. Apologies,” Keiji said. Tendou had a strong hunch that stated she, in fact, was not sorry at all. “Now, before I open this door, you should gear up. What was the approximate temperature of your home planet? Or rather, your city or country?” She asked in tardiness.

“It’s –I don’t know for sure but I’d say, about nineteen Celsius degrees where I live?” He blinked. Why was she asking these, again? Tendou would have to cover lots of skin, no? “Why did you ask?”

“I see.” Keiji looked at the gear that lied on Tendou’s feet. “You should put that on.” She pointed at the frock coat that was hanging from Tendou’s right lower arm. He examined the coat for brief seconds before putting it on –it was beneficent that Akaashi had a frock with four arms. Too beneficent. “Alright. Pick a scarf and a hat to wear. Yes, those are adequate. Take a pair of gloves, as well.” Tendou did all those things, not without twitching with mild frustration though. He certainly did not like the taste of being bossed around by a… well, by her! 

“Lady, listen. I don’t exactly expect a blizzard to hit. What’s all this?” He raised all his arms up in protest –it had been hard; for the corridor was quite narrow and the coat was restraining him well above his comfort level. 

“This is, for my friends to feel welcome to join me at my breaks.” Keiji explained. 

“So… this room is where you spend your free time?” Tendou weighed in, eyeing the door suspiciously. What was behind those doors? Candy? A shrine to L.I.S.T.’s home planet?

“Precisely.”

“But why –”

“Let me just… demonstrate.” She opened the door, to the end. Leaving Tendou completely unguarded to the… well, blizzard. Turns out that woman knew a thing or two.  
Tendou didn’t know what a frostbite would feel like. He had never experienced one. Hell, he’d never seen snow on Frond. But… that door? The blizzard-like cool? Undoubtedly, Tendou was about to step into the unheated parts of Sirius. He didn’t think it actually existed. He’d only heard rumors of it –rumors that he didn’t regard as possible truths. Apparently, the room relied on the thermostats nearby and the heat electricity provided. If that was the truth, the room’s average temperature was –  
It was enough to leave it at no life could possibly endure there more than a few hours.

“Is –is that room the room that is not heated? You know, the room in those rumors.” He gawked in shock, again. Keiji shook her head.

“No. Every part of this ship is heated. Unless you count inside of the engines –there are built in rooms to fix malfunctions easier. But those can be heated if there are personnel inside –they have thermostats.” She tilted her head. “You know this better than I do.” 

“Sirius is a great ship. By great, I mean big. Her hull is full of secrets.”

“Tendou, this is a space ship. They do not have hulls, as it’d be unnecessary for them to have hulls.” She was right. Tendou had read one too many books about sea affiliated businesses on Earth. Wakatoshi had said they weren’t accurate. Even so, Tendou had grown fond of them, and there was no stopping him from paralleling Sirius to antique ships that were meant to rule the seven seas. And presumably, a few oceans. 

“Then –why does everyone call the master console ‘the helm’?” He complained. He expected Keiji to scold him on his priorities. She frowned.  
Tendou expected the scold.   
Her burrows fused together, confused. She murmured several things in several breaths, in several seconds.   
Tendou’s brows lifted, baffled. She was not going to snap at him, after all?

“That’s because their purposes are similar.” Her tone indicated that she too was not satisfied with the answer she’d come up with. 

“Then can’t we just name main chambers ‘the hull’?” Tendou proposed. Keiji was considered an esteemed member, and she had the authority to enter the main chambers at will. Most crew people had that right only when they were assigned to it –or if there was an emergency.

“That –is actually not such a bad idea. I don’t know if an antique seaship’s hull is the equivalent of our main chambers. But,” Her expression’s softness was gone in an abrupt second. Maybe she would snap at him, after all. “I didn’t go through the burden of walking us here only to argue about this. Step inside, please.” She proposed, as if it was an offer that would get Tendou into serious crap if he refused. He had no means to refuse, to be frank. Science Lady was intimidating, even though she was one and a half head shorter than himself. 

“Of course.” He stepped in. He’d thought he’d gotten used to the particular condition of Keiji’s break room by standing in front of the door for a while –he had not.   
It was not wrong, that his species had evolved to adapt to a much warmer environment. Tendou, among his relatives, was known for his tolerance for cold. Heck, he wouldn’t have gotten on this ship as an engineer if he hadn’t had that tolerance.  
The breakroom, however, was a completely different story.  
He cursed himself for not grabbing any eye-gear. His pupils wouldn’t freeze, would they?  
No, that was not likely.  
Keiji had asked him if he wanted anything to drink. She was getting him a steaming cup of hot chocolate (or, as steaming as it could get) and some sort of deadly-cold-ass-liquid for herself (later explained by Keiji, to be an iced tea). 

“Before we start, I want to state that I am aware of your abilities. I know that we could’ve conversed with even more privacy. But,” She sits down after handing him the mug. “I am also aware that you are not fond of it. And, I don’t want to intrude your mind, nor I want you intruding mine.” She waited for an acknowledgement from Tendou –he nodded, agreeing with her points. “Sirius reserves only 17% percent of its regular break room’s resources here. That means there are no cameras, little to no electricity, and no eavesdroppers. Only you, me, drinks to keep you warm and me cool, and the thermostat.”  
Tendou made a mental note that consisted of questioning Keiji’s heritage and ancestry later on.

“I see. Co-Captain Sugawara told me that there were intruders –I have sensed some of them but that’s not why I am here for,” So began Tendou’s brief summary of his conversation with Sugawara, and the machine he’d build, and the pieces and resources he’d need to build it. With every sentence he’d built, Keiji’s eyes flecked with more and more white speckles –or so it would seem. Tendou could say that she was excited about these developments, she was thrilled to have Tendou join them. She wasn’t sure of one thing, though.   
She did not trust Tendou completely.  
Alright, that was a bit unfair. Nobody excepts one’s trust to be complete, not even Tendou. Dwarek, he’s had his time adjusting to new people that he does not trust –and he can read minds! So it was no surprise that the L.I.S.T., one of the brightest crew people, to trust him completely. It wouldn’t be wise at all: ship was under an attack that was initiated by shape shifters (possibly by mind-replacers, but not likely), she’d just met Tendou in person, and they were of different planets and species. Not like it’d make trusting someone easier. No matter what planet, colony, species, or space station; people has always fed prejudice. It was a survival instinct, of some sort. It was not needed anymore, as most societies were advanced enough to let go of it entirely; but people still held onto it, subconsciously.   
At least they’d quit addressing each other formally to abridge the process of the story.   
Keiji’s aura seemed… secure. He could assume that she was a withdrawn, introverted person. An extremely withdrawn, and terminally introverted person. It was none of his business, frankly. He didn’t dig deep. He never dug deeper than his business.  
Tendou was finished simultaneously with his drink. He got up to get another –he still felt cold, but on the bright side his eyes were nowhere near freezing. That was always a good thing, unless they were melting. 

“I’ve compared actual Mr. Oikawa’s skin cells, and saucer Oikawa’s skin cells –they seemed to have their most peculiarities in common. Except from certain protein-base arrays that could be discarded. The saucer seems to leave some of its DNA –or, another genetic trail– in the shape it took.” She explained. 

“How did you get Oikawa’s skin sample?” Tendou’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

“I didn’t. Shoyo Hinata did it.” Keiji explained, gulping the last bits of her drink. 

“Shoyo. I know the kid.” He twiddled with the small amount of goatee he had, thinking. “Hang on, for real? How did he do it?” He said, when he failed to come up with an adequate explanation. 

“He found it lying around Oikawa’s desk.” Keiji’s tone insisted that Hinata could be trusted –that she trusted him. 

“It just happened to be lying around? And he just… took it?” Keiji nodded. “But, that’s literally impossible. I’m not able to give exact odds, but… How’d he do it?” Tendou’s skepticism grew, his eyelids barely restraining themselves from entirely covering the eyes. 

“From what I can tell, it wasn’t easy for him. He spent a good two hours with his regular gear, before I convinced him to get out there.” She left the glass inside the freezer –why did she need a freezer? The whole room was a freezer. Tendou shuddered from the chill.

“Why, did something happen?” He questioned. 

“Yes, you could say that. He was chased by an android. He was terrified when I found him. Or, well, when he found me.” Tendou raised the arms on his right side, to deflect the heaviness of the situation. 

“An… an android? On Sirius? Oh Dwarek, this has gotten too ridiculous for me. A legitimate android? Are you sure of that?” He taunted. 

“I’m at least 91% certain of it.” She frowned, crossing her arms. 

“Great, you don’t know for sure.” Tendou almost forgot he was talking to a superior –he almost rolled his eyes. Almost. 

“91% is a good probability.” She defended. 

“Yeah, but –an android? Right now? I mean –is it not bothering you? The timing?” He fused his brows; creating a frustrated, yet upset expression. Keiji sighed. 

“Hinata told me that the android obeyed to Oikawa, only. We don’t know if –” 

“He’s in it for the saucer, or the real thing. Yeah, I know.” Keiji shot him a glare.

“Not exactly how I’d phrase it, but yes. Do try not to interrupt me again, though. And do not call Mr. Oikawa the ‘real thing’. It is inconvenient.” Alright, no interruption for the lady., he thought. 

“Yes, sir. But I believe we should stress on it more. I am highly doubtful of Hinata.” He expected a response from Keiji –all he’d gotten was a nod, meant for him to continue. He sighed. “I am acquainted with him, and I think I do know him a little bit. Your narratives did sound like him and his doings, but this whole thing is still… I feel like something’s off. I mean –he literally just popped out where your break room exactly is, claiming that he’d been chased by an android –which are rare and illegal in most parts of the cluster, mind you– has anyone else seen the robot? I think not. And that whole… I just found Mr. Oikawa’s skin sample lying around. Neat, huh? thing has gotten me…” His words were pouring out of his mouth with high velocity. Tendou was more than prepared to go on, but Keiji gestured him to stop.

“Alright, alright. You are right. When you state the events like that, it seems skeptical. However,” She shifted in her seat, grabbing the screw driver shaped key. “I don’t think Hinata is a saucer.” She toyed with the key.

“Still –would it be okay if I checked him out?” Tendou asked, unsure. 

“You’ll have to ask that to him; but I do not think he would refuse.” Tendou nodded. “Let’s put that aside, for now. I want to talk about the machine.” She asked. 

“I –I did think about the design of it. Everything I’m going to need is going to be in my workshop, but I do not know if Head-Engineer would provide them for me, for I am suspended.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve spoken to him. He’ll let you do whatever you want for a day.” Keiji’s lips curved to form a halfhearted smile. Tendou would take that person over intimidating and don’t-interrupt-me-ever-again-or-I’ll-behead-you Akaashi anytime.

“Then I guess… it’d be ready ‘till tomorrow morning, tops.” He glanced down at his watch. It had gotten late! So late that Tendou could assume his friend Wakatoshi was finished with his experiment. 

“Good. Then; tomorrow, I’ll be expecting you at I.S.T. chambers, right before breakfast –with the data of brainwaves.” She got up, unlocking the door and opening it for Tendou. He turfs himself out of the room, literally. And kicks the whole winter gear to the ground. 

“Alright. I’ll need that last anyways.” She pointed to frock, gloves, scarf, and the hat on the ground. 

“I’d appreciate it if you placed them back to the hatch.” Keiji asked politely whilst locking the door. Tendou murmured a sound of approval beneath his breath, and got down to business. How hard could it be, compressing winter gear whilst gravity was not helping you at all? Turns out, plenty. He groaned.

“Good, then. We’re settled. I will run more experiments on samples, and keep my eyes on Hinata until you confront him. And, possibly look out for the android, I guess.” Keiji sighed. Teamwork was supposed to get her shoulders off of so much burden –it was not. She stepped on a thick wire to assist Tendou.  
At least, they’d get a machine out of it. All was well. Their precision would only grow stronger with Tendou on their side. He was a brilliant engineer; and he had a strong hunch of telepathy that could potentially wipe out any stranger mind on the ship, among the crew.   
They would get out of this. They had to get out of this.  
Keiji would hate to witness another serious conflict.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I kept you waiting-ish.  
> Hope you enjoyed it!


	7. Not What He Seems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been forever but I've been too preoccupied with school to actually gather what I've written... so. Sorry.

“Ushiwaka! Is the experiment still not ready?” Oikawa’s gleesome yet threatening voice, spoke –yet the owner was both biologically and psychologically was nowhere near Oikawa. At least, his original state of physiology was nowhere near the infamous CS-Pres. Wakatoshi frowned –Mr. Oikawa knew that chemical experiments on biological entities could never be rushed. He had told him it would take him 4.1 hours. It had not been three, what was his hurry?

“No, sir.” Wakatoshi calmly replied. 

“Then make it ready!” Oikawa, frustrated, spoke. 

“I apologize, but I cannot rush this experiment.” He puckered his lips, slightly. Why was his supervisor acting all.. well, whatever that was?

“Why not?” He insisted. Wakatoshi’s eyes narrowed, in confusion. 

“Since I am testing an organic compound from a living creature’s tissue –” 

“Cut that science-y talk. You can rush it, I know.” Oikawa encouraged him.

“I don’t believe I can, supervisor.” He damn well could –but it was not necessary. Had something urgent happened?

“You can, Ushiwaka –you just don’t want to.” Oikawa stuck his tongue out to him. He was not startled. Something urgent must’ve not had happened, then.

“But sir, I do not want to risk it. Processing of this experiment is adequate. Besides, it’ll be over in less than an hour.” Wakatoshi tried to explain –his boss was more demanding than usual. 

“I need it now!” Oikawa cried out like a cocaine addict begging for another puff of the goods, drawing a few’s attention to himself. Wakatoshi froze as he realized that. He was not a fan of any sorts of attention.

“Supervisor I –”

“I need the experiment now, laboratorian.” Oikawa ordered.

“You are lengthening the process.” Wakatoshi protested. 

“Fine. Ten minutes. You have ten minutes.” Oikawa, as if he’d made a fair bargain, spoke. 

“But –”

“Ten. Minutes.” Oikawa said, in the non-gleesome but threatening voice. Wakatoshi gulped. He was not intimidated by his supervisor –he’d never been afraid of another living being. It was his actions. Even though Oikawa had always picked on Wakatoshi; he’d always done it to embarrass him, not humiliate him  
Fine, it was. Wakatoshi could end the experiment in ten minutes. Results would not be promising, but he could. Passive-aggression was not something he’d initiate with ease –but so be it, he would have the experiment ready in ten minutes.

“As you wish, Mr. Oikawa.” He turned back to his post –Wakatoshi could be finished with the experiment and make 87% sure nothing would deteriorate in eight minutes. He’d need twenty-eight minutes to be 100% sure. He hoped Oikawa would be as punctual as he was –which was not quite punctual.   
Had he been drinking? Wakatoshi has never seen his supervisor drunk, though something was definitely off with him. Maybe he had been drinking. Would be none of his business, if it wasn’t interfering with his handiwork. He was the steadiest scientist –his work may have been taking time, but it never turned sour.   
Wakatoshi was finished. It had been six minutes since Oikawa had snapped at him. He put down the microscope slide in front of Oikawa, gently. 

“Mr. Oikawa –l” He said, whilst handing him the paperwork of the experiment. 

“CS-Pres.” He corrected Wakatoshi as he sipped his coffee. He raised his brow to the headline of the experiment. “I thought this experiment was based on off the Lyberians, not Schuarilis.”

“CS-Pres,” Wakatoshi emphasized each syllable. “Permission to speak at full liberty, sir.”

“Allowed.” Oikawa took yet another sip out of his coffee.

“Have you been drinking?” His outspokenness was relentless, almost. Given to that no one except the new recruit from Earth. As Oikawa choked on his coffee, recruit was long gone though. Maybe out of fear. Maybe with the keen that wanting to share his newfound gossip topic. Wakatoshi never knew. 

“Not that liberally,” He frowned. “What makes you think that?” He questioned.

“You had never asked me to speed up with my work before, sir.”

“Well, I have now,” He raised a brow. “Got a problem with that?” Wakatoshi stared at him for what seemed to be a few seconds. A moment of silence passed between them, for a short while. 

Wakatoshi cleared his throat, “With all due respect, the demeanor that is shown by you towards your own team has changed drastically. We are, mutually, in a condition of apprehension for your mental condition.”

Now, it was Oikawa’s turn to stare. He was… not used to hearing such long words. Not in this common language nonsense, at the very least. He disregarded Wakatoshi after a while, and got up to clean up the coffee that stained a small portion of his desk. 

“Go play somewhere else, Sergeant Wakatoshi.” He dismissed him.

“But –”

“Dismissed.” Oikawa said, emphasizing a whole lots of anger inside that one word. Wakatoshi, who had done nothing wrong to deserve the treatment, had no choice but to retreat.   
So he did. 

 

***

It had taken him long enough. Iwaizumi was a pretty patient man; he had been blocking out the fact that they were most likely all going to die in space, for at least a year now –yet even his patience wasn’t an abiding qualification. He had been sitting there –with an annoying habit of tapping his foot out of short temper. Strange for a patient man to be short tempered, wasn’t it?– for at least an hour now. Where was that certain, that garbage-headed, Horusan lieutenant? He was the one that wanted to meet up. He’d requested, and Iwaizumi quoted there’s something wrong with my thermostat. Care to take a look, Hajime? What was this ship’s sudden issue with the thermostats, anyways? He had adjusted at least three of them that morning.   
Alright, fine. Iwaizumi did look forward to their meetings, no matter how brief or how dull. Even if the main subject was thermostats. Honestly, he appreciated Oikawa and his friendship –but the guy was the definition of inconsistent and Iwaizumi could not always decipher his thoughts. He sometimes didn’t understand his friend –scratch that, he rarely understood Oikawa. The only thing that stayed the same, except from some seldom occasions, was the enjoyment he would attain from their friendship. He was a dear friend.  
More than that, maybe.   
No, scratch that. Fine. He knew that Oikawa wouldn’t exactly lean towards being intimate with another sapient species. Iwaizumi was at the breaking point of how close Oikawa would get to another sapient species, probably. He wouldn’t get any farther from there.  
Put those thoughts aside, though. Right now, he was frustrated. He had left him at least five messages now. Oikawa was not responding. He had to keep himself fueled with frustration and irritation to leave no habitable area for the anxiety and concern.   
Iwaizumi sighed.   
It was time he paid his friend a visit, yes?  
He sighed again.  
Maybe not.  
Come on, Hajime. You did promise yourself that. You were drunk when that promise happened, but here we are. You have to confess.    
Was he sure he wanted to do this?  
He was sure he wanted to. Only, he had few of those what you’d call concerns.   
He got up and left the area that wasn’t populated by younger crew-people –obviously, whilst sighing at least three more times. Recruits liked to nick him as the Sigher (how originative and observant of them, Iwaizumi would always think.) behind his back. As if Iwaizumi didn’t know. Young people could be dumb, but they were also the future. He’d always addressed them with the same respect he’d show to anyone.  
Moreover, none of them were as dumb as Iwaizumi had been. They’d never enlisted for the planetary defense army –‘defense’ being the key word.   
His feet stomped rather heavier than usual on the ground, as he walked in the halls to reach his friend’s shift. Maybe his room, even.  
Iwaizumi sighed.  
Probably not his room.   
He kept on walking, until he heard someone calling his name. 

“Ah! Iwaizumi. I didn’t think you’d show up.” Was the only greet he had received when he’d reached just outside of the CS chambers, which was transmitted by an oblivious alien. Iwaizumi fused his brows to appear more intimidating. He needed that to tell that alien who had at least a good two meters in height.

“You told me we’d meet by the F-section.” He crossed his arms around his chest. 

“Did I?” He raised the naked skin over his eyes. His species didn’t sport eyebrows, but given to Oikawa’s stubborn nature, he didn’t need eyebrows to raise his eyebrows. At least, that was what he said to everyone who asked –or didn’t, necessarily. 

“You truly are an idiot,” Iwaizumi shook his head in a small amount of disbelief. “You drink so much coffee that you start to forget your own sentences? This crap started world war four back on my planet, mind you.” He looked at his friend, displeased. He had never been that friend who would scold his other friends for their bad habits, until Oikawa. After he found out that caffeine was highly toxic to his species, he had to. The guy consumed more caffeine than your twenty-first century business person.

“I know but it’s so… irresistible.” He took yet another sip out of the mug, eyes as large as dime stones. Iwaizumi hadn’t noticed the mug. His eyes went wide with the realization, they then narrowed. 

“Oh for the love of…” He yanked to mug out of Oikawa’s hands with a swift swing. 

“Hey!” Oikawa’s species didn’t sport pupils; but if they did have that asset, Iwaizumi was sure Oikawa’s be the size of a bottle’s cap at that time. For starters, he wasn’t able to distinguish his friend’s eye’s grey-tinted parts –it appeared pitch black, which was definitely a sign for over stimulation for a Horusan. He looked as if he’d just spurted out from an old school horror movie. 

“Your caffeine tolerance is much lower than humans. You mustn’t have more than half this mug a day. It’ll damage your circulatory system.” He stated, speaking slowly and emphasizing every word in a different tone. Oikawa scoffed menacingly, which kind of… frightened Hajime? That was weird. He was rarely startled, nor perplexed by one’s appearance nor behavior; aside from the bloodied PTSD he’d acquired because of the time he’s spent at war. 

“My circulatory system is different than yours.” Oikawa said. Iwaizumi shook out from his absent-mindedness. 

“Yeah, that's the point. Caffeine is much worse for yours.” He persisted. 

“Doesn’t change the fact that they’re different.” Oikawa insisted. 

“Come on, man. Don’t you remember that one time at Paraguay, when you had too much chocolate covered coffee beans?” Iwaizumi’s persistence was slowly turning into small pleads. 

“You’re no doctor, nor my mother Hajime,” He was smiling, but his words weren’t. “Give me the mug.” He extended his arm. Iwaizumi, he would be too embarrassed to admit though, gulped. Oikawa’s voice, body language, tone, mimics, stance; his everything was meant to be threatening, their objective was to terrify Iwaizumi.   
Oikawa’s species have always had that quirk up their sleeve. They had a knack for intimidation. Chaotic ones, they used to use it on Terrans long before time began. Humans, it was easy to startle them, fright them. They were the ones that had been referred to as gods –they had educated Ancient Egyptians with the necessary mathematics that was needed to build the pyramids. That was, of course, over; once the high council of Horus found out about what some teenager conspecifics did (by the time they were caught, they no longer were teens and were punished).

“No I’m not. I’m your friend. I’m the friend who can tell you’ve had more than,” He said, frowning a bit. He was disappointed in Oikawa –he promised to have a civil friendship with him. He blamed it on the coffee. Felt easier that way. He inspected the mug. There were lots of seared coffee stains on its inner side. Iwaizumi made some quick calculations inside his head –he’d always been rather good at that. His eyes went wide at the result. “Shit, at least four coffees today. And that’s only from this one.” He held onto the mug. “You’re going to get a stroke.” He said, even though he knew it was impossibly rare for Oikawa’s species to get a stroke. Oikawa sighed and clutched his tall forehead. He extended his other hand. 

“Give me the mug.” He insisted.

“Only if you promise to pour this crap down at the sink. Caffeine’s effect on you is worse than the effect of nicotine on me.” Iwaizumi, who had definitely not signed up for this crap, said. He held the mug as far away from Oikawa as possible –which wasn’t very far, by the way. 

“My species don’t get lung cancers.” Oikawa crossed his hand that was clutching his forehead on his chest. 

“That’s not the point, Tooru.” He coughed out. 

“The point is –” He raised his right index finger, as if he was about to state an important point for his argument. Most of Iwaizumi’s attention drifted towards that fake-point. It was too late when he’d noticed. Oikawa successfully yanked his mug –a black mug which had the symbol of old earth people’s depiction of an extraterrestrial– back from his friend, and chugged the rest of the coffee. By the time Iwaizumi reached the mug, it had already been emptied. 

“You –hey!” Iwaizumi who had been caught surprised by Oikawa, shouted as silently as possible. “This is bad for you. A mug equals a hard pocket of cigarettes.” He said, heavily emphasizing on bad as if Oikawa was a child. 

“As I said, I don’t get lung cancers.” He shrugged. 

“Well then, don’t come crying to my door when you catch some tissue fluid disease.” Iwaizumi’s face grimaced. When had he started binging on coffee? This was bad. Space must’ve been effecting Oikawa somehow –it sure had affected Iwaizumi at his own first time. 

“Come on, Hajime. When did you get so stiff.” Oikawa murmured, upon rolling his eyes. Had he said the thing Iwaizumi thought he said? His brows fused with slight anger. 

“What?” Iwaizumi, with a grimaced face, said. 

“What?”

“What did you say?”

“Oh, your spine. It’s oddly straight.” He spoke more clearly. Iwaizumi gulped. Oikawa’s taunts had never reached out to his subconscious mind, awakening some instincts that were related to fear. 

Get it together man, he thought; showing little to no bits of anxiety, nor fear. He had been to war. War. A single individual –who happened to be his friend, by the way– shouldn’t be scaring him to quarter death. To be fair for Iwaizumi, Oikawa had never alarmed him that much. He started to remind him of the soldiers of species he’d been fighting against. The blue room. Blurs of –   
Caffeine. Must’ve been caffeine.  
Iwaizumi sighed. He needed caffeine, too. With a pack of smoke. He quit a long time ago, but hell, he still longed for it.

He coughed, “Yeah? Was that supposed to be a threat?” Iwaizumi smirked but his words weren’t smirking. “Or what, pencilhead?”

“Or I’ll remove it for ya.” Oikawa said, his voice barely louder than a whisper. Iwaizumi resisted the urge to gulp. No, Oikawa was not one of them –not even the same species. Why was he acting like a complete reminder to Iwaizumi? Council of Terra hadn’t even believed that Iwaizumi was relieved out of combat by an unknown species –Iwaizumi simply called them invaders–. They thought the probability of methane gas poisoning was more likely to have taken place.   
They were right. There was no room, nor traces of a room that used to be. Simply, he had been going under lots of pressure and hydrocarbon seas of Triton had not helped.  
He wasn’t exactly disappointed to be relieved of army, though. He got to have friendships that lasted more than two months now. 

“I’d like to see you try, chump.” Iwaizumi’s smirk died out as his arms folded neatly on his chest. And then, they held the longest staring contest Iwaizumi ever had. He’d never seen Oikawa this… repulsive. No, Oikawa didn’t seem repulsive to him –but Iwaizumi felt that he was seeming repulsive to Oikawa. Alas, his expression had been merely a meter away from disgust from the moment they’d started speaking. Okay, that certainly wasn’t promising. Iwaizumi cleared his throat. 

Oikawa looked down to him, scanning Iwaizumi after the epic staring contest which Iwaizumi won. Which didn’t matter. “Nah, I changed my mind.”

“Okay, can we please get on with the purpose of this ‘rendezvous’?” Iwaizumi mimicked with his fingers. He didn’t know if it was the subject change that distracted Oikawa from looking towards Iwaizumi with hate. Probably. Perhaps it was the distraction. Or Iwaizumi’s mocking voice that he was used to hearing. 

“Ah, alright,” Oikawa put down the mug, whilst clutching his head. “I’m sorry I lashed out on you –I’m just under lots of pressure.” His voice contained pieces of regret. He sat retreated to the chair to sit down.

“S’ok. Do try not to drink caffeinated coffee though –there’s decaf on the ship.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t feel the same if caffeine is absent,” He made a silent complaint, his eyes slanting in coffee-lust. “I’ll try, though.” He added, upon noticing Iwaizumi’s glare. Iwaizumi nodded, and murmured the word good under his breath.

Oikawa gulped once more, before starting to talk. “Can you keep a secret?”

“I’ve been a mercenary for a while in my youth, you know.” Iwaizumi folded his hands behind him. “I’m not proud of it. But mercenaries does kind of have to lie sometimes.” 

“I do, it’s just…” Oikawa sighed. “This is kind of serious.” He fiddled with a nearby tool. 

“Figured that much out.” He watched him toy with the small bob.

Oikawa kept toying with the bob –honestly, it was driving Iwaizumi insane. He managed to contain himself from showing any signs of distress, though. He didn’t want to discourage him. After a vivid exhale –the most intensive sigh Iwaizumi had ever witnessed. Drama queen, he thought.– from Oikawa, silence disappeared.

“Have I told you that… I had Terran relatives?” He said, in a confessing tone. Iwaizumi’s neutral expression kept its reign over his face. Oikawa forced a sneer down -he was buying the whole act. He had no idea his actual best friend was missing, no.

“Well, no. But that explains lots of things; for instance, you are as ugly as us filthy humans.” Iwaizumi said, obviously kidding. It took a moment for Oikawa to realize –he didn’t seem like he was in the mood for jokes, though. Iwaizumi’s endearing smile that created swirling creases near his eyes, slowly withered.

“We aren’t related genetically,” He tapped on his knee nervously –and probably under the effect of an outrageous amount of caffeine. “My mom’s brother married a human –and since they were unable to create an offspring, they adopted a human child.”

“I see. You have a human cousin and you’re ashamed of it.” His eyes lit with teasing him.

“I wouldn’t say he was my cousin –I’ve never seen him in real life.” He pursed his lips. 

“He technically is your cousin. It is your right to disregard him as he's your cousin, though.” Iwaizumi hesitantly patted Oikawa on the upper arm. He pulled back when Oikawa flinched, though. Maybe all that caffeine had made him sore. Yeah, his circulatory system was different, that must’ve been it. 

“Of course he is. He needs help now, so, now he is!” Oikawa exclaimed; his face scrambling varying degrees of with anger, confusion, and frustration. “My aunt is such a hypo –ugh, the timing is bad –really bad.”

“I got a bad feeling about this.” Iwaizumi murmured, stroking his chin. “What happened?” He contemplated. He didn’t want to guess. No sir, thank you. He had two scenarios in mind, none of them appealed anything to Iwaizumi nor Oikawa. Nor the crew. 

“Um, he was doing an internship at that collider factory in Venus.” He let every word out with its own private sigh. 

“That’s actually impressive.” He muttered in a state of slight awe. As far as he knew, Terrans and Horusans were not usually allowed in such factories. Their uncontrolled fascination and emotional responses tended to cause malfunctions. Although maybe that was what had happened to the poor kid. 

“I guess. Anyways, he sort of died because the antimatter valves he’d been near to exposed to matter –but he isn’t dead,” He breathed heavily, and the reason for that was definitely not a delicious cake. “His brain is alive.” 

“Oh. I take it his head is in a jar, then?” Iwaizumi asked.

“No, he’s –he’s a… a robot now.” Oikawa scratched at the back of his head, like he wasn’t at all a fully-fledged adult who had been dealing with illegal affairs, but he was a small boy who had done doing some solely innocent mischief. He cracked a disturbing smile. Iwaizumi’s jaw dropped. 

“Wait, you mean he is an a –” Iwaizumi jumped in excitement and fear. An android. He had never seen one of them, and as someone who used to study engineering at the University before the army’s draft, that shit intrigued him.

“Shh! Don’t say the a-word.” Oikawa gestured with his index finger. Iwaizumi hesitated to speak.

“But –that’s not legal.” He stated the obvious.

“I know. That’s why it’s a secret, dude.” Oikawa explained. Iwaizumi’s expression took the form of a confused one –which one was more unlikely? Tooru penetrating the law, or Tooru saying ’dude’? He leaned his back to the seat. 

“What?” He whispered with wonder. “I mean –how?” He had at least seven great question marks in his head, first one being about the transfusion to android from full organic organism. He was no scientist, yet he knew that Earth didn’t have enough resources for an operation of such sort. 

“I have no idea. All that I know is that I’ll have to drop him off at GK-64 for him to avoid becoming a full-fledged robot. They can reanimate him as a human there. Tech on Terra... is nowhere near advanced to sustain his body, even. No offense.” He shrugged awkwardly. Iwaizumi raised his hands, yielding.

“None taken, it sucks.” He admitted. “Well then, unless other people find out about this, you and him should be safe.”

“Yeah… that’s the issue. I kept him under ice to minimize the decaying in his tissues,” Iwaizumi approved of the method by nodding solemnly. “But,” He inhaled briefly. “He’s got away.” He admitted timidly. Iwaizumi, after a few moments of silence, scoffed. A chuckle that was based on its prior ancestor scoff came out of his throat, before his signature laughter –which consisted of roaring with laughter with your lower face and seeming to plot to kill someone with your eyes and brows. 

“I guess I should’ve seen this coming,” He said, laughing still. He wiped the single tear that formed in his right eye. Oikawa watched in amusement. “Yeah. Okay. Do you have the map of his brain activity? I could track that.” He said. If his organic brain’s activity wouldn’t cease, that was. He started making a mental map of the mechanics that he’d require to program something that would find the cousin’s location based on his brain waves.

“Of course I do –what kind of scientist do you think I am?” He asked, his voice a bit over the decibel limit.

“The kind that’s stupid enough to lose a person in a finite area.” He replied. 

“Oh –I never said I lost him.” He shrugged.

“Then… what happened?” Iwaizumi knitted his brows.

“He was taken.” His voice hushed any other sound that was coming from the room. Iwaizumi’s eyes widened –he didn’t believe his words. None of his crewmates were… alright, Iwaizumi understood. If he’d found about an illegal artifact on the ship; he too, would want to investigate it. Give it a try. He understood, but he also was sure that they didn’t mean any harm. They had to find Oikawa’s cousin before he got hurt, was all. 

“Relax, I’m sure they mean no harm. You could convince them into cooperation.”

“No, Hajime. Right now, this ship is a pinnacle of the evil forces.” Oikawa said with a grim tone and face. 

“Evil… forces?” Iwaizumi, in a mocking voice, said. He raised is eyebrows whilst his mouth shining with a bright smile. Was he going back to that phase where he thought Candelans were hostile because his eyes could not perceive them? Man, those have been a rough few months. But, the way Oikawa’s shape sneered, was enough to tell him that it was far from the actual case. 

“Your kind doesn’t get it, I see. What you call sixth sense is no myth for my species. This isn’t good.” Oikawa shape faked a shudder. Iwaizumi, raised his eyebrows slightly and momentarily. He’d never seen him shudder. Did Horusans ever shudder?

“Of course it isn’t –you’ve lost an android.”

“I don’t mean that,” He sighed heavily. “I think… I don’t know. Something serious will happen.”

“I didn’t know Horusans were good oracles. Oh wait –they aren’t.”

“I think,” Oikawa shaped creature spoke, not minding Iwaizumi’s last comment. “I think the ship’s already a goner.”

“Oh come on, lighten up. This is the greatest starship yet,” Iwaizumi flicked Oikawa’s forehead. “But it’s a starship. There’s always something that goes wrong.” 

“I know that, but –”

“Yeah? You don’t sound like you are ready to die if there’s an issue with the air circulator. Or life support. Or, heck, a technical issue cause by the smallest pebble in space. This thing’s more dangerous than an antimatter factory,” Oikawa-saucer stared at Iwaizumi –they were not exactly safe in the ship? No idea, saucer had. It had to restrain himself from giggling; were humanoids really… that dumb? Why go this far, if your lives are at stake? For prosperity? Knowledge? Evidence that they’re not alone? Ridiculous, it was. “But we do it for the science of it. Now come on, let’s start looking for you’re a-word issue.” He smiled. Oikawa, who was making no effort whatsoever to leave the room; looked at him, startled. Iwaizumi, groaning about the uselessness of his friend; grabbed Oikawa’s arm and led him outside –where they could search for Kageyama. It'd have to wait for another day, or two.  
Or thirty.


	8. Can He Handle Artificial Anti-Gravity?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somebody is about to do something they shouldn't.  
> That somebody is a soul no other than Tendou.

“I’m –I’m sorry, but you need what now?” Said the newcomer. Nah, they were no rookie. Tendou heard they worked at Terra Intel before. He didn’t think he’d live to see another soul waste their potential to the logistics of this ship –trust him, it was a miracle this thing was still running. He couldn’t imagine the amount of necessary paperwork for that– but he was glad it did still run. 

**Six Hours Ago**

Tendou stared at the orange haired human. Huh, its color did resemble his own skin, actually. Ah well, that was no excuse to let the boy off the hook. He’d gotta be sure, was he safe? Was he a saucer? Did he use to steal cookies on top of his mama’s fridge? He had to know it. His eyes had narrowed a while ago. What could he do to enhance his intimidating stance, what could he possibly do?

Human, also known as Hinata, blinked in an understandable confusion. “M –may I help?” He offered, kindly. Yeah, there wasn’t any need for that now. His eyes retained their original shape, which perplexed the boy. Tendou, amused, scoffed. Of all the things… the boy was thinking about a locket that his sister gave him.  I mean –what the heck, kid. Have you not recovered from late-medieval times? he thought.

“You may.” The sly smile on his swallow-hole curved. 

“Uh… how?” He said, then blinked.

“By letting me read your mind,” he said, quick as a flash. 

“Come again?” He blinked. Why was he blinking so much? Maybe there was an eyelash in his eye?

“I need to know if you’re…” Tendou’s eyes darted at every way possible in suspicion, he was told this was something humans did when there was a suspect but neither of them were the spurce of that suspicion. “…one of them.”  
Its effect on the boy was… arguable, though. He had retrieved, as he reluctantly stared at Tendou. Then it hit him –he was not familiar with this human custom. Oh no! he thought. This confirms everything. He held the poor soul, as he forgot humans sometimes didn’t appreciate this kind of physical contact.

“You areone of them.” Tendou hissed. Hinata, who was gawking at Tendou, wondered what he’d done to deserve it.

“Look, sir, I don’t want any trouble. Just read my mind, there isn’t much there anyways.” He managed to speak, but barely. Tendou, without really ceasing physical contact, shrugged and went ahead.

His mind was divided into rough parts one could only describe as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ experiences. Good ones contained lots of family, mostly his sister. They were yellow, orange, pink; all sorts of peachy colors. Bad memories, there came other colors. A really vibrant blue. Sterile white. So much white. And a cold red –Tendou didn’t know color red could be cold, as it was the definition of hot, not even warm. He did not dwell on it, because he hated it; though he knew he had to look. The boy seemed skeptical. 

Where are we? the orange boy asked. 

This is your mind, Tendou said, as he noticed that he’d completely ruined the gesture of suspicion from a passerby memory. Shit, he was not skeptical at the slightest.  I’m sorry for invading it. I was skeptical of you.

I –It’s alright. At least now you’ve made sure –. He stopped. This actually feels… so peaceful. His expression softened, he probably was not aware of the stress he’d been shouldering. 

Yeah, wait ‘till you’re out of it. Everything gets –  he held his tongue. Hinata didn’t have to know about the headache he’d be getting later on today.  Alright, kid. That’s enough. He let go of the telepathic bond, almost immediately feeling shittier than usual. 

“Whoa,” Said the kid, who seemed to be astonished with that. “That was so cool! I didn’t know you could enter minds like that.” He beamed. Under a different circumstance, he’d not waste a minute to brag about it, but at the moment, he knew that a fit of headaches were more near than a minute. He held it in, as he bit his tongues to not let anything negative come out.

“Yeah, you’re clean. Oh, and I think,” He said, trying his hardest not to cover his eyes with his upper hands, “Dr. Yachi was looking for you.” He made something up. Hinata, seeming more like a ray of sunshine from Tendou’s narrow point of view. His eyes were getting more irritated by the second –this was unusual for such a short telepathic interaction, actually. He covered them with his under arms for a moment, whilst speaking. “You better go off and –” he freed his eyes of the darkness that his hands had caused, only to find the boy out of his sight. He’d already gone, eh? That meant he, too, could go. He needed to go. To take a nap, probably.   
As he stumbled towards his room, trying not to gather any sorts of attention towards himself yet failing fabulously, he had nothing to think about but the memories. They just wouldn’t go hide in the long and tall mountains of bliss called: Tendou’s endoconscious. Tendou got why it was like that. Hinata’s subconscious wanted him to see it. In fact, he’d literally welcomed him. He had been bottling up his thoughts and feelings about some certain events for far too long, and he needed to share it with someone, anyone. Once it was done, he’d only want to share it with more people, which would result in –  
Tendou shook his head. He really should stop psychoanalyzing people accidentally. He would’ve told someone if he really needed to. It was not necessary to think those memories back and forth, they weren’t his.  
He had finally reached his room –hurray, bed– Something like this had happened to him once before. The fool Tendou used to be didn’t see a harm in peeking; heck, he freaking watched them. But now, he was the future Tendou, the model that knew better. He knew those were repressed memories that likely carried traumatic events that led Hinata’s personality and the life he’s living. He had no right to see them, it was never his intention to overstep the boundaries that he set to himself.  
But he did. He couldn’t help but to notice the swollen face of a young, dead woman. Had been dead for longer than a week. Heck, he could smell it.   
Oh no you don’t, he thought to himself as he triggered his endoconscious with a flashlight to shut down. It would be longer than just a nap, but this was the safest way. Who was he to know? Who was he to ask Hinata what had happened? It was so not his place.  
he thought, as he drifted into a five-hour-long nap.  He is most definitely not a saucer.

**President Day**

“…and I’d like to thank all my citizens –for voting for me! I’ll singlehandedly make İrestel great…” It was a Frondian man, with bright orange skin and what one could only describe as a badly structured weed-wig, that stood on the platform. Alright, Tendou didn’t need to hear more. He still was lost in his memories. He remembered this day crystal clear. Because it was so boring, it had become the epitome of boring memories. All other boring content was connected to it somehow. Son of a…   
It could be difficult to manage through memories sometimes, especially if he’s living some certain… experiences that cause stress in the time being.  
For example, he was worried shitless. It didn’t help that the memory he was within was not a well-remembered one. He didn’t travel through his memories as most Frondians, he found it excruciatingly pointless. And mildly boring. Definitely, boring. These trips were things all who possess his biology must do, or else they’d get quite stressful to deal with. He, admittedly, didn’t really keep up with the healthy amount. What? So did the most other Frondians. It was too easy, almost as easy as blinking, for one to get lost in their memoires and lose sight of the real world. Mindlessly drift through the void of their own psychological world. He understood, he just didn’t agree.   
He looked down to his hands; noticed that the ground seemed closer than it used to be and that he had cute wittle handsies with greenish palms. Yeah, this was from when he was around five. He tugged at his parents’ legs, begging to go, literally. He had seen enough. He closed his eyes, hoping to find reality…

**The Day Tendou Does Not Talk About**

...and he opened them. had he found reality?

“Ugh, I can’t believe you’ve done this!” A family member –his adoptive brother, actually– whimpered theatrically. ‘Twas Tendou whom had his googun (sort of like the water gun, if one would look for a human version of this. Of course, it was way more annoying. It contained sugar, so it would just. Stick everywhere and anywhere. Tendou was more than glad he’d had his fair share of those, though. They were delicious.) pointed at him.

“Neigh, brother o’mine!” He shouted, as he shot the younger brother of his.

“Kids! Time for lunch!” A cheerful voice called to them –must’ve been his father. Or maybe his uncle. Tendou didn’t really remember. It didn’t matter, too, as this memory had never happened. It was planted into his brain. To avoid the possibility of a childhood trauma, he presumed. He really didn’t like to think about this day –not that he didn’t enjoy the day. Planted memories are almost always the best, but they’re also the easiest ones to tell apart. Their edges are shinier than it is supposed to be, it made his eyes water.   
It was still unclear to him, the events that had happened that day. The only clear thing about the day was that it was the last day he’d seen his brother. He had never seen him again. He probably wouldn’t see him ever again. Probably for the best, he could only imagine why the block memory was still there. The block memory was something that was planted into his consciousness to keep him trauma-free. It was supposed to lift as it no longer possessed potential to deal a trauma –at least Tendou thought it didn’t. Tendou always assumed it’d lift as he reached adulthood, but it hadn’t.  
He glanced at his brother, whom he undoubtedly missed yet lost the urge to worry about, for one last time; before waking up in his bed, neck aching ‘cause of his choice of position was dead wrong.

**Present Day, Hour, Second, You Name It**

“Oh, you know, a few Avogadro's number of anti-gravity particles.” He smiled. “The regular.” He itched his neck –damn, it still hurt. 

“How is that remotely close to reg –regular? What do you need them for?” They asked, somewhat threatening but kind enough for Tendou not to suspect he’s being threatened. They sure seemed like the right kind of person to deal with this kind of task, alright.

“I need to cancel out the artificial gravity for a few hours without tampering with the machine.” He looked at the floor. “And I really need you not to ask why.” Maybe they were the kind of person who appreciated honesty. Alas, from what their expression had changed into, it could be said that they obviously were not.

“No. Why do you need to do that?” They spoke.  Ugh, bureaucrats, he thought. Alright, it was Tendou’s turn to accept that humans, too, could be somewhat scary.

“Uh… I’d… I have orders from… Uh, L.I.S.T.” He shifted his weight. His underarms were crossed on his chest. They blinked, and tapped on their desk with a familiar rhythm. 

“Hmmm. Is there a confirmation link?” They eyed Tendou suspiciously, yet not throwing away the possibility completely. Oh, why was no one trusting Tendou lately? I swear I’m going to develop an ulcer after this, he thought. Not that I’m capable, no. You don’t have an acidic –   
He sighed, to interrupt his own thoughts.

“No. This is a top-secret mission.” He admitted. They, being decent at their job, did not even bat an eye. He didn’t really need a disapproval to know that they didn’t believe him. 

“Then you won’t mind if I check in with someone in the boarding office.” They said. Oh boy. Oh boy, indeed.

“No! Don’t… you don’t need to do that.” He said, barely restraining his desperation. “I mean… it’s not the necessary protocol.”

“I don’t?” They raised knitted eyebrows. They were right to do so, how dare Tendou attempt to teach them how to do their job! They were well aware of the protocol, you idiot! “I want to make sure of that.” Tendou gulped all his hope for the future, as Asahi –yeah, he couldn’t really help but to peak into their mind, ok? That happened sometimes, so don’t blame Tendou for Asahi literally think-shouting their name out loud. By the way, they thought it was a really cool name. Tendou thought so too, not that it matters nor helps with the case – contacted the office. Oh boy. Was Asahi really pissed off, or was this just their face?

“Yes, this is Asahi,” They replied. “There’s a person here, named...” They looked at Tendou.

“Oh! Tendou. Satori. Tendou.” He replied, a few seconds too late. 

“Satori Tendou. Yes, he requests…” their speech was cut by the supervisor, or whomever was on the other line. “No, sir. He claims that he has orders from…” cut again. They didn’t seem frustrated in a bit, no. Tendou could respect that. Then again, he did probably put up with shit like this a lot. One could only guess what shitfaced scientists would request. For that matter, Tendou knew it’s strictly forbidden for people like Asahi to just –hand out anti-particles. Those things were… dangerous to the extent of planetary destruction. It’d leave absolutely no survivors on board. 

“Listen, Sugawara,” Tendou tried to make his beaming less visible as he heard the name –maybe he was not screwed after all. “You know I can absolutely not let him in under these circumstances… no, that’s not what I meant.” A sigh. Then, a brief pause. “If there was a breach in security… I suppose that would not be a violation then. But I fail to see a breach –” Sugawara kept on talking, and they nodded, their expression visibly softening in the eyes of Tendou. “Understood.” Asahi hung up. Looked at Tendou, no sign of approval inside their eyes whatsoever. 

“So… am I allowed to –” 

“You may have three tubes. Mr. Sugawara said it’ll suffice. But, next time,” a little smile grazed their mouth. “Please do not forget to bring a confirmation link. On paper or not.” They let him in. Oh, it was just their face then. Alright, now Tendou felt like an ass. He was an ass, but he’d never felt like one. He thanked them briefly, before entering the particle library.

It was, as you may suspect, quite difficult to capture particles or keep them in their preferred locations, or even use them. Tendou never even understood they had anything other than anti-proton in there, it was way too goddamn dangerous. Well, to be frank anti-proton was probably among the most dangerous if not the most. But it was needed for the engines, so they kept plenty. They kept the ships which blew up because of anti-protons in their minds, too. It was only fair; for their crews and for themselves. Enough on that, it wasn’t his business to question the necessity of this library. He would simply just walk over to the anti-gravity particle’s isle, and grab three.  
Oh and… there were only three of that anyways. He didn’t know if it was just sheer luck, or if Sugawara knew. He probably knew. I mean, Tendou might be the one with sharp teeth and bigger amount of limbs but he was pretty sure that guy could tear him apart if he wanted to. Sure, he didn’t really like humans that much, he thought they were repulsive and maybe a little bit creepy. Okay, he thought they were really creepy, as a species. Terran history was one giant clusterfuck. And heck, he was somewhat scared of them before he met them –that was kind of racist, he knew. Once he’d noticed their teeth were not for biting enemies; but for smiling, and sometimes biting their enemies, his nana’s scary stories about humans had flown away from him. He was glad. They weren’t a threat to him, Wakatoshi, nor Asahi, nor Sugawara. He admired their intentions and their way of using resources. He admired their willpower, and strength. Sure, their circassian rhythms were fucked up, so was their bodies which literally ran on rust and snot, and they sometimes smelled funny. That was no determent in what Tendou thought of them, and…  
Ah. He was rambling in his thoughts again. He should really stop doing that, ‘cause as a telepathic he might actually be projecting someone’s mind with these… pointless thoughts. He grabbed the tubes, each holding the largest possible amount of anti-graviton they could. He imagined the havoc he could wreck with these little guys. Confused people, floating everything. And of course, the upper hand.   
He grabbed his communicator and texted Supervisor Tanji to meet up with him at the main center –yeah, a bold move, as Tanji does not really appreciate textual messaging, but screw him Tendou has three freaking tubes of anti-graviton– as he exited the particle area and headed to the main center.

Sirius, it was mainly shaped after the breed of a late twentieth century human’s perception of a UFO and the fictional Enterprise –Tendou realized within his first week with them, humans were basically just a bunch of over-excited nerds. But, the artificial gravity devices were only effective on the functional parts of the ship; like workstations except aerospace, people’s rooms, bathrooms, etc. The main machine that sustained AG happened to be on the center of this Frisbee-shaped ship, smaller devices were scattered along Sirius to distribute the gravity. He didn’t know how exactly that worked, it wasn’t really his area of engineering. So for that, he needed an experienced engineer salted with sweat of hard work and bathed in the tears of his rivals.  
He stood right in front of him.

“I’m an old man, boy. This better be important.” Tanji groaned, as Tendou tried to keep a neutral façade. 

“Hello to you too, Supervisor.” He said under gritted teeth. 

“So? What do you need me for?”

“Why do you always assume there’s got to be a –” Tanji gave him a look that kindly explained his unwillingness to deal with Tendou’s crap. “Okay, okay, fine,” Tendou sighed. “I need to take out the gravity.”

“What do you need that for?” Tanji, not even impressed, retorted. Tendou tried his hardest to not let out an exasperated sigh, he really did.

“I just –I do, okay?” He said, letting out an exasperated sigh.

You should show more respect. Tanji abruptly thought for Tendou to sense. I hate it when he does this, Tendou thought.

“I do respect you. Why else would I ask you to do this? What is with you old people and respect?” He replied; gesturing all kinds of gestures known to human arms, all but the bird and its varieties. 

Then you need to show your respect properly, he said, turning his back, unimpressed. “Until then.”

“Wait –why are you going?”

“I am a supervisor. I have to supervise. It’s the gimmick.” He said, and then disappeared. Must’ve used ship-wide teleportation system. Bold of him. Oh, now he decides to be funny, Tendou thought.

“Supervisor Tan –Tanji come on!” He babbled after the man who was already gone. He murmured some curse words under his breath, none loud enough to be heard. Then he simply sighed, and sat down by himself for a moment. He knew what he had to do for Tanji to do this for him. He really, really did not want to do that. It’d throw him years back on his progress with humans, probably. Ugh, that sure had gone swell. Well, so much for that. At least now he was sure that Tanji was the real, actual, old, grumpy self and not some endothermic exoskeleton-y alien.   
He let out yet another sigh. He was in the middle of a relatively crowded hall, full with people conversing and doing recreational activities. He knew that there were people capable enough to handle the task there. But he wasn’t going to ask any of them, no. He didn’t know their regular mind patterns, and wouldn’t be able to differentiate it from a saucer’s activity. Brainwaves, they were the real deal. Much more credible than fingerprints, or DNA analysis. Those could be imitated, after all. Then, as a custom of the human humor expressed, he felt a lightbulb kindle above his head. Fuck, I forgot about the machine. He reached his pocket to retrieve some piece of paper, examined it. At least he’d drew the plans and listed what he would need. He could postpone building it to a bit later.  
He got up to do one thing he excelled outstandingly at –he got up to fuck shit up. He didn’t need Tanji to just place some tubes to a machine, did he? After all, main circle was on their lunchbreak now, were they not? What was the worst thing that could happen? Sure, anti-gravity particle was unstable as heck, but it didn’t have the potential to cause a massive explosion. No, nobody would die, or get wound beyond repair. Also, nobody would suspect him if he jaywalked into the center, not a soul. They were busy eating. If they did, he could always ‘change’ their minds. He smiled, the human custom still kind of felt weird on his mouth, as he walked past a few people, with three tubes of anti-graviton in his hands.   
Oh, this was going to be good.


	9. Is It Hot Here Or Is It Just Me?

Cold.  
Her long, uncomfortable slumber was disturbed by periodic chirps of water dripping on a corroded metal surface. She meant to get up to scan the surroundings; until she found herself unable to do so, that is. She felt any movement that she’d force upon her body would be a heavy burden. But in less than five minutes, she had gotten herself into a sitting position.   
Had she been drugged? She did not know. Although maybe, that was the point of drugging someone. Or, one of the points. She hoped she wouldn’t stick around long enough to find other points out.   
Splash. Splash. Splash.  
She leaned on the nauseatingly cold wall for strength –she had to get up. She had to distill this… whatever that was, out of her system. After all, she bore a significant responsibility that was the leading position. Step one, leaders did manage to get up and leave the post-apocalyptic environment that they suddenly woke up in. Currently, she was failing step one.  
Wait, how had she come there to begin with? Last thing she could remember was going back to her chambers after a particularly exhausting day which also took quite the time to come to an end, smiling like a doofus because Akaashi had said good night to her.  
The wall that she’d been leaning on seemed to be moving, circling. She detached herself from the cold and slick surface. Gravity felt wobbly –maybe Kenma had been overhauling the artificial gravity device again. It would take more than that to overthrow Captain Bokuto of Sirius though, she wouldn’t give up so easily. She couldn’t.  
She leaned back against the wall to overcome the unstable gravity –and because she had no other alternative, respectively. She inhaled five deep breaths, then five shallow ones; her body was psychologically trained to take that as a need for an adrenaline boost. She started her movement, restricted by the many wires on the ground, as she felt energy rise in her veins and arteries. She followed the wall’s path for a while, she didn’t know how long she’d come or how much time had passed; she wasn’t too eager to find that out.   
Maybe twenty steps, maybe thirty –the amount that she’d come before her knees gave in. A loud thud uttered from her knees, but she didn’t feel any pain.  
In fact, she didn’t feel anything but the adrenaline fading in her bloodstream. 

“Good night,” weak, her voice came out. 

 

Such a normal day for Keiji, it was. She had just gotten out of her personal fridge, and he hadn’t bumped into anyone suspicious, or anyone at all for that matter so far. Now, she just had to file some non-classified reports on Lasfar DNA, and she’d be done for the day. Officially. Then, she could get down to her research, she would keep on attempting to locate the victims’ bodies. Their best guess was that they were down in the engine corridors, where it was only warm enough for Keiji as the temperature was roughly 200 Kelvin.   
In other words, if she didn’t find them in under eight hours, they would most likely be dead because of hypothermia. Heck, she could die of hypothermia there. They could already be dead. Ship’s heat detectors were no good, they had been tampered with probably. In her hand was a thermos of light caffeine humanity called coffee, a matter which held blood in its hands as there had been wars for it before the dawn of replicator technology. It was to keep humans awake for a more amount of time than usual. It worked well on Keiji so far, she’d never had a thermos of it though.   
She had another thermos of water vapor, and another of scorching hot tea. And loads of electric blankets; Orb knows, they’d need it.  
It wasn’t like she was just going to –down the whole thing now, was it? No, it was just in case she got sleepy. She couldn’t afford to fall asleep at a time like this. A sudden urge to text his last location to Sugawara came over her, but she pulled away from that with ease –she couldn’t give saucers the advantage of her location. Instead, she just entered the dark oblivion also known as engine corridors, and activated the flashlights on her uniform. Alright, not so dark anymore. Still, cold for even Keiji. She really should’ve borrowed a suit, huh. She tried not to imagine how much of a mess others would be.   
She walked for a time that felt like hours to her, even though she knew it had only been half an hour. Her flashlights might’ve been illuminating the corridor, but they didn’t make it any less creepy. The walls were not smooth like the inner corridors, they were filled with polygonal metal chunks, which seemed to form into some sort of fractal. The road was cowered in all sorts of wires, though extreme caution and determination helped her stay on her foot. An hour later, a wave of sleepiness caused her to tackle, but not fall. She sighed, as she sat on a rectangle-shaped chunk and got the thermos out. She took a sip from the coffee, whilst examining the patterns on the wall. Were they made on purpose, or not? Keiji didn’t think it was on purpose, but then why did it look like a piece of art? What if they were messages, instruction manuals in gibberish for one to figure out, in case someone other than federation found the ship? But no, the ship was no ancient site –why would there be messages left in such way? She took another sip, pondering about wherever her mind took her; before she heard a sharp noise, like metals chaffing together. She put the coffee back, grabbed her gun, and got off of the chunk she’d been seated on.

“Who’s there?” She cautiously scanned the hall she was in, but the noise had settled. She took a step, then another; to the source of the noise. But no avail –whatever caused the noise seemed to be gone. “Hello?” She gave it another shot, as she reached a crossroad.  
Two metals chaffing together. She turned towards the noise –there was someone there! But before her stern expression could soften to not frighten the person, they started running away from Keiji. Oh, come on, she thought right before sprinting after the stranger. They didn’t seem to be one of any lost crew members, but Keiji couldn’t tell for sure. They could be a saucer, one who merely shapeshifted into a humanoid. But that would not be sufficient enough to explain the chaffing of the metals.  
Unless…   
Keiji’s eyes grew, then shrunk. Of course, she thought. I should’ve known.   
It was the android.  
Honestly, she didn’t really believe Hinata when he told her, but now –she’ll be damned.   
And what an android! They sure had a stamina for someone whose body was decaying. It would make sense to keep the android here, though. It wasn’t ideal, but it’d do for a few weeks. Months, maybe.

“Hey! Stop!” She yelled, as she picked up her pace –but let’s be honest: there was no way Keiji could outrun an android.  
Android, being only a matter of meters away from Keiji, tensed. They seemed… afraid? They turned their face towards Keiji momentarily, a terrified look sprawled across their expression, she could catch only but a glimpse. It’s… He’s basically a kid, she realized. Nonsense –who would do such thing to a kid? There was only one way this could go, and Keiji already knew the shortest cut to it. 

She tried not to frown out of frustration. “I’m not going to hurt you.” She slowed down, “Let’s talk this through like two people.” She stopped running, and she sat down. She could only hope that he would be a victim of his own curiosity. And she waited. Waited. Waited. Wai –  
Android kid –whom looked angry and blue– appeared in front of Keiji, and sat down across her; leaving a good three meters between them. She smiled, and dimmed the flashlight –androids could be sensitive to light, she didn’t want to leave it to luck.

A minute of silence. Then another. None said a word for yet another minute. Then, “Why did you stop chasing me?” came a grumpy response from the android. 

Keiji, pouring herself and the android –after all, his digestive system could still be intact– some coffee, “I think you know the answer to that. I’ll say it just in case though: this was the most logical way to the best solution.” She handed him the cup full of coffee and some harmless chemicals to keep it from freezing. To her surprise, he took it and shook it gently in his hands, eager to not spill any. 

“Who are you?” He asked, looking at Keiji skeptically. 

“My name is Akaashi Keiji. I work here.” She avoided details, they weren’t necessary. The watch on her sleeve gently vibrated to remind her that she had six hours left. She gulped. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Kageyama. Kageyama Tobio. Oh… Here? Where… where am I?” He avoided to look at Keiji’s direction.

“This is Sirius.”

“Sirius? Sirius the star? The base? The chain restaurant?” He mumbled. Did he just make a joke? she thought. There was no way any of Sirius Sapphire chain’s restaurants was this big.   
How much of the ship he’d seen, anyways?

“The spaceship.” His radiant blue irises widened. 

“Sirius the… spaceship?” He cradled his face with his hand. “How did I come here?”

“I don’t have the slightest idea.” She sipped from her cup, which seemed to remind him of his own cup. He kept disregarding it, though. 

“Do you know why I’m… well, an android?” He asked with a face so heartbreaking Keiji felt a strong urge to give the boy a hug. I wonder how long he waited for someone to ask that question.

“I don’t. What’s the last thing you remember before… y’know.” She gestured towards his body, hoping he would understand. “All that?” She wasn’t always the best at making people understand what she meant, but she got by. 

“I… I was at the antimatter factory at Venus. An assistant was showing me around. That’s it.” Keiji did her best to not show any emotion. She knew that one of the facilities had failed, thus letting the deadly atmosphere of Venus and acid rain inside. It had been a chaos, so many lives were lost. Governments did their best to cover it up but no avail. They couldn’t get away with that sort of a thing, not in this era, no. She was assuming that poor Kageyama had been inside the facility that day. Some people did resort to measures such as androidizing people to preserve them –it was seen as an unorthodox act that attested immortality, which had been banned altogether if you weren’t born with it. It was deemed unethical by the Interplanetary Council of Peace and Prosperity (ICPP for short. Humans did tend to find that abbreviation very amusing, as at least one giggled every time it was mentioned, Keiji has yet to figure out why) and some other major organizations. 

“I see. So, Kageyama,” Keiji guessed that one of her best options was to dismantle the heavy subject. “What do you study?” He was most likely attending University. 

“I –uh,” Said the android, who seemed a bit perplexed by the sudden change of environment. “I’m an energy transfer major. I’m not minoring in anything though.”

“Oh. Why?” It was rare to see someone have only one major and no minors after the diploma crises of Hong Kong, Ankara, Pretoria, La Paz… 

“I’m more of a… sportsman. I was, at least.” Kageyama seemed quite troubled. He sat stiffly, clearly uncomfortable. Keiji would assume it was because of the cold, for now. Do androids experience cold? She really did know nothing about androids, huh. Rare to find a field like that.

“Really?” Keiji said, with a tint of excitement sugaring over her voice. “What sports do you play?” 

Kageyama, surprised, “V –volleyball. I used to play as a setter.” His expression momentarily changed into an expression of bliss, freedom: then immediately changed back. He gulped a few times, and his stomach growled. Strange, she thought. I never thought androids had that much of a digestive system activity. She blinked a few times. They did not. She was sure of that. Now she remembered a book she read on androids in the University: they did not possess any sort of digestive system, they would simply use generate the energy themselves. But then… had robotics developed enough to sustain a digestive system?  
She shook herself back to the conversation. She had to respond.

“Are you hungry?”

“No –I mean; I don’t know at this point. I guess I’m not.” He shrugged.

“Drink the coffee. It’s got the necessary nutrition that could substitute a meal.” She really didn’t want to ask how long had it been since the last time he ate. 

As he sipped his drink, Keiji thought about volleyball. She knew this sport well, Captain Bokuto used to play, too. She never wasted a chance to talk about volleyball, brag, or get into arguments about which position X person would be –she had deemed Keiji to be a setter. She’d said that it was perfect for her, and that she’d teach him how to play next time they visited Terra. She even took Keiji to a match on Terra once. So she knew enough of it to talk to someone with. Keiji’s expression, noticeably, softened. “My friend used to play, too. Ah,” She hadn’t spent too much time with Kageyama, but every minute was crucial to her now. After a moment of silence, she asked, “Kageyama, have you seen anyone down here?” Find her, find her, I have to find her. She felt as if bugs rampaged on her whole skin.

Kageyama, bit his lip, then stopped immediately after he realized he was biting down on his lip. He still has lips to bite on. Low levels of decaying. She wasn’t sure but she read that an android could be reverted back to their original physiology if the level of decaying was not too great. Of course it took a great deal of medicine, science far beyond Terran or Orbian technology. “I think I did. I’m not sure if they were from the crew, though. Why are you down here? It was practically deserted until you came,” He seemed vanquished with himself, as if this should’ve been the first thing he should’ve asked. 

Keiji sighed. That was one of the things she’d been worried about. “I was looking for them. Probably, it was them. This is a small ship,” She laughed nervously, probably her shortest laugh ever it was. Are you kidding me? That joke was so bad, even Bokuto would dishonor you. “Anyhow, I really need to find them right now. Would you mind…” Keiji, are you really going to ask the illegal android whom you literally just met, to assist you in finding Captain Bokuto and possibly more crew members? I’m sorry, but have you lost your teeniest tiniest bit of sanity that’s left? Go up and look for them yourself. What if this android is obeying saucers’ demands? What if the reason of his existence here on this ship is to eradicate the federation step by step? What if he’s a spy? Have you forgotten how common those are, or do I need to remind you? She stopped, trying to silence her negative thoughts, sipped her drink. No, she wasn’t going to ask him to do that. She was going to ask for much, much more. “…I mean; I wouldn’t mind another helping hand in this cause.” She said, with a blank face. 

She witnessed his face shift into an expression of bewilderment. “What?” He wore a smile on, a smile that failed to touch his eyes. 

“It’s not a joke. I need help.” She repeated.

“Well, but, you do have other people for that. You choose to trust me instead of your crew?” He raised an eyebrow. “Do they treat you that bad?” He questioned, crossing his arms on his chest. Keiji sighed. 

“No, they treat me better than I deserve. Much better. But I cannot trust them for the time being, because there are invaders among us.” I sure hope I haven’t said too much, she thought.

“But,” He kept questioning. “Why would you trust me over them? Am I not more suspicious than them? I could be with…” He gulped. “With those invaders.”

“I don’t think you are, Kageyama.” Keiji said. “If you don’t want to assist me, it’s fine. I’ll let you be.” She didn’t exactly know why, but this boy was not the murderous rogue Hinata had told her about. Her whole perspective on wait, aren’t androids people? had regained its balance. 

“…you’re not going to tell anyone about the android downstairs?” For the first time in the duration of their entire conversation, he did not divert his gaze. She looked him right back.

“No. They’ll find you soon enough, even without my help.” That was a lie. They most probably wouldn’t, because they wouldn’t be looking for an android here. It would, however, take less than ten minutes to locate him if the systems hadn’t been tampered with. “And while androidism is an ethically questionable and delicate subject that has been banned by interplanetary law for decades, I’m not against it if it is for the preservation of life.” She looked him in the eye, with a blank expression. “And in your case, I think it is.” 

He shook his head, “It’s too late for that.”

“No it is not,” She said. “Do you know the temperature of this room?” 

“I… not really. It is cooler than usual, I guess.” He responded with glum eyes.

“That is a correct statement.” She took off her glove –her skin tingled uncomfortably, immediately– to show him her mechanical armband. “Klaus, how cold is it?” She asked the AI.

“Hm? Oh, sorry, Ms. Akaashi! I was just rebooted. Could you please try that agai –” Keiji sighed, mumbled something for Klaus to enjoy his fun with the trainees in the recreational rooms, that’s where he usually was, as she manually set the armband to show the current temperature. 

Kageyama gaped. “It’s… -73 Celcius degrees?” He raised a brow. “Oh wow, I really am far gone if I’m not able to feel this cold.” Was he for real? Keiji would assume this was because of his search to be glum. 

“But you know, this is a pretty solid temperature for organic material to not decay. Because most saprophytic bacteria cannot live under circumstances that involve…” She didn’t continue speaking, as she realized Kageyama was not listening. She glanced back at her armband, now showing time, to find out she was fifteen minutes behind her original plan. “Oh, I have to –”

“I can be rebuilt.” He said, stars of hope, confusion, and dread dazzling in his bright blue eyes. 

“Excuse me?” 

Kageyama turned to her. “I can be rebuilt.”

“But you’re already built.” She responded. She was well aware what he meant, though she wanted to hear it from his mouth. 

“As a human. A real boy.” He breathed out. Keiji couldn’t help but to think of an old tale of Earth, Pinocchio. That was probably what he was getting at. If Captain Bokuto was here, she’d most probably say but Kageyama, you are a real boy. 

“If you want to. Though, I’m no expert on the matter.” She said, casually. She packed her belongings. 

“I… I’m not sure. If I want to.” Doubt was clouding over his whole existence. 

“Why not?” She asked. 

“Because… it won’t be the same.” He confessed.

“The inherent decaying will remain unless you were mummified –you are not, if that’s what you mean.”

“No, it’s not,” He sighed. “Never mind.”

“Alright,” She got up. She was no remarkable point in forcing Kageyama to resolve his inner conflict then and there. Poor sod had been through enough lately. “I have to keep looking for my friends. Please keep in touch if you see them.” She handed him a small communicator that had her, Hinata’s, Tendou’s, and Sugawara’s info in it. 

“Wha –”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s untraceable.” By most, she added inside her head. Kenma could probably trace that under an hour. 

“Oh. Okay.” He nodded, still not really sure what was going on. 

“I advise you to stay down here. It’s cold enough to sustain you for a long while. I also advise you to go into hibernation, if you’re able to do that,” She turned away from the boy. She trusted she’d see him again, but in a much different atmosphere. “Until next time, Kageyama.” She started walking, it was faster than her usual pace.   
I am going to find them. If they’re here, there is no way I won’t. I will find Captain Bokuto before she… dies.

“Wait! I want to help,” She heard this a few minutes later, Kageyama’s voice was bouncing over at her from the metal walls. Keiji stopped walking. A few moments later, he arrived. “I want to help.” There stood Kageyama, clearly out of breath in spite of his enhanced stamina.

“Ah,” She did definitely not expect for events to turn out like this, she didn’t know if she was glad it did. “I know I’ve asked first but, you realize this might fasten the decaying of your flesh, yes?” He nodded slowly. “Then, why do you want to help me?” 

“You –you need help, don’t you? Those people will not make it if you don’t find them, and –” He got cut off. 

“I can find them. You shouldn’t worry about it,” she attempted to turn away. 

“I! Wasn’t finished…” He yelled –Keiji knew Terrans liked to yell, but this guy could compete Bokuto in freestyle yelling. She lingered to listen what he was about to say. “I think, I mean,” He sighed deeply. “I want to stay like this.” He looked at her. “Man, I don’t even know why I’m talking to you about this –I barely know you.” He sighed, exasperated. Keiji took a step, and he mimicked. They were slowly walking.

“I’m all ears.” She said, as she activated her personal thermal detectors. She used an old Terran phrase to keep him comfortable, to imitate the feel of a home. 

“Uh, right. So,” He started off, explaining everything and anything he felt that was important to him. Keiji wasn’t able to give it her full attention, regrettably, but they had a limited amount of time. Regardless of that, she always responded Kageyama with dignified responses. She thought he deserved them. Yet, she had no idea what the right thing to do was.   
Kageyama, as he said, felt better in this form –even though the last few days had been a thunderstorm for him. He found it most elegant, and strong. He told Keiji that he’d never be this comfortable in his own skin like this in any form. And –it probably was a good thing that he felt that way, for all they knew he might’ve been compelled to this form.   
The way Kageyama put it, indicated that he would have no problem with such a thing. Keiji, having been taught her whole life that androids were invalid creatures, also did not seem to have an issue with the idea of someone actually preferring that form over other forms. Was it weird? It was. Yet, it failed to weird Keiji out. Maybe it was the sense of space, or the effect of putting up with Bokuto for so long –  
A beep. Periodical beeps. Her thermal detectors had caught something –or rather, someone.  
She felt her heart rate increase. The thought of a dead body had crossed her mind more than once or twice –she couldn’t seem to recall it, though. All she could think of was her moments with her; she thought how Bokuto always puckered her lips when she was thinking hard, she thought how her hair seemed like an iron maiden yet it was softer than anything Keiji had touched.   
It was filled with her. Keiji’s life. She was yet to find out how she’d lived without her for the first twenty-seven years of her life. She wanted to see her, she wanted to touch her.   
Was that weird, at all? She didn’t know at this point.  
She didn’t care.

*

“Oh,” Sugarawa breathed out. “But –not even a trace?” He asked, penetrating the dead silence that hung on the air over their heads.

“Nothing.” Said Keiji, trying her best to look unfazed. She took a deep breath. “No, not nothing. I’ve found saucers’ old skin. Apparently, they have to shed it before shapeshifting. It’s really nasty, I’ll teleport you the samples.”

“Good. You keep looking for them. Anything else?” He asks.

“Actually, there’s one more thing.” She felt like they ought to know about Kageyama. It was not like they’d neutralize him right away, or at all, right?

“What is it?” Sugawara questioned. 

“I… I met the android Hinata saw.” She confessed. Yet another heavy silence fell upon them. 

“Really?! It wasn’t my imagination after all,” Hinata nervously shouted. He had grown tired of these awkwardness’s. “How did you survive?” He asked with a slightly more concerned look on his face. Keiji felt sick at the assumption Hinata made.

“His goal was not to kill me. I think he can help us. I looked him up, he seems trustworthy enough.” 

“He’s an android,” Sugawara chipped in, seeming as if he’d not slept for the last seventy hours. Heck, maybe he hadn’t.

“He did not seem like a murderous bastard to me,” Keiji defended. “Wait. Was that a bad-word?” Sugawara made a so-so sign with his free hand –other was under a pillow. 

“He did try to kill me once.” Hinata said. It sounded more like Ho död tro to köll mo once, probably because he was busy eating.

“We don’t know if his goal was that. Maybe he was just trying to communicate with you.” Keiji leaned back against the comfortable couch. I wonder if this was the admirals’ courtesy for Sugawara. Or maybe he put it together himself. Or with his girlfriend.

“I’m scarred for life and you’re telling me oh, maybe he just wanted to talk to you, Hinata. But because you’re too small –”

“You should be more respectful towards you’re her. She is the L.I.S.T.,” Sugawara interrupted, which made Hinata jump in his seat. “He has a point, though his wording manner was not proper to defend it. We don’t know anything about this android.”

“His name is Kageyama Tobio, and I’ve just told you I looked him up, Co-Captain.”

He sighed. “I told you not to call me that. Fine. Where’s the research link?” He clutched his head in his hands, much like Kageyama did last chapter, as Keiji sent him the link. Keiji blinked. Wait, what chapter? What was she on? Although, she hadn’t really slept well lately either. And now she felt like her only ray of hope to find Bokuto was gone. But that was not right. If they were to be down there, she’d at least find their dead bodies.  
Corpses, she thought. Every biological dissection she ever made flashed before her eyes. From giant tardigrades to small Orbian insects. For a split second, she found herself dissecting Bokuto’s body. Her face was bent in a shape that spoke of utter terror. Her nose, her ears, pieces of her cheeks were missing –frostbite. Her lips were purple as blueberries –why do they call them blueberries if they are purple? Her hair was stiff, her eyes dull. And her body as a whole, it did not move.   
Keiji clasped her hand over her mouth. She had gotten herself nauseous, good job Keiji. 

“Okay… I don’t know about the android but this Kageyama boy here seems solid –wait, why does he only have one major? Does he have a death wish? He’ll die in this economy.”

“Isn’t he already, like, dead?” He casually asked, still eating but this time his mouth was not full thus no crumbs were shredded.

“No, no. Androids are classified as living beings.” Sugawara explained, still examining Kageyama’s bio.

“Oh. Okay. Didn’t know that,” Hinata admitted. “Lemme see it too.” He reached to the monitor that was in front of him, as Sugawara sent him the link. There was another moment of silence, until Sugawara made a sound that reflected his excitement. 

“Keiji, why didn’t you tell me he had one major because he was an athlete?” He beamed as much as possible for an exhausted man. 

“Well… Hinata said something at it wasn’t my turn to speak, so –”

“Keiji. We don’t do ‘turns’. This is a regular conversation.” He actually lifted his head and looked Keiji in the eye to say that. 

“Yeah!” Hinata, barely in the background of Sugawara, approved.

“You’re among friends.” He said. She slightly narrowed her eyes. Okay, I mean I don’t hate these people but isn’t friends a bit too much?

“You tell her.” Hinata, swinging in his seat like a five-year-old on a sugar high, said.

“And I’m just gonna say this once more, feel free to call me Kou –Hinata will you please stop that!?” He exhaled sharply. 

“EEEK! I’M SORRY, SIR, CO-CAPTAIN SUGAWARA!” Sugawawa facepalmed. 

“Don’t be. I’m sorry for lashing out.” They both didn’t seem sorry. It was okay, Keiji knew humans apologized for it was ethical to do so, even if you weren’t truly sorry that you offended someone. 

“Kageyama, he told me he played volleyball. That he was a setter.” She explained. 

“Is that so?” Sugawara smiled. A few bold dimples appeared on the corners of his mouth. “I used to play, too.”

“Don’t you still play on Sirius though? I saw you sneaking nets to ship’s gymnasium our last shore leave.” Hinata contemplated.

“We weren’t sneaking it in. We’ve got a permit for it, we just didn’t want to alarm people who are unfamiliar with net-based sports.” He explained.

“Why?” Hinata tilted his head. Sugawara sighed, though it sounded more like a yawn. Maybe it was a yawn. 

“You really should search Kronenberg history better, Hinata.” His head bounced on the pillow. 

“Have you ever played?” Keiji asked.

“No.” Sugawara sighed. “This saucer thing happened right after, so I’ve been pretty busy. In fact,” He barely held in a yawn. “If I fall asleep on you please don’t take any offense.”

“On us? You’re… nowhere near any of us.” Keiji questioned.

“Oh no, not literally. It’s an, ah, I don’t know what it is exactly. But it’s like an idiom.” He explained what it meant.

“I got it.” Keiji felt a tinge of embarrassment –she’d spent way too much time with humans to not know what that meant. 

“I used to be a setter, too.” He closed his eyes to rest them. “Huh. I guess we really could’ve gotten along with this fella if the circumstances were different.”

“Woah! He got accepted into an antimatter factory? Him?!” Said Hinata, who was scrolling down on Kageyama’s bio. Keiji nodded. “No way!” 

“Why not?”

“I… it just seems impossible for a human, yet along a teenager human, to get accepted.” He mumbled.

“Have you applied?” She sternly asked, distinctly reminding Hinata the counseling room trips he’s had as a tween. He shivered at the thought of those days.

“Er –I mean, no, but –” She shook head head in disdain.

“None of you Terrans apply, that’s why. Yes, they’ve got standards that are a bit challenging to meet, but getting in there is no rocket science.” She explained. 

“But Ms. Keiji… it kinda is.” He frowned.

“Idiom,” She winked at him. Shocked, Hinata turned back to his glass monitor, trying and failing to hold giggles in. A soft snore could be heard from Sugawara’s direction. 

“Aw, he was at the Venus factory? I feel sad for him now, kind of.”

“Kind of? What else do you feel?”

“Fright.”

“I thought you were over that.”

“I am. But you can’t deny that the guy’s face is very scary. Like, look at him,” he forgot the fact that he was in a room filled with enlargeable nano computers, and actually walked all the way to where Keiji sat to show her the gallery part of his bio. Keiji had to admit, kid did stand his ground. Barely so, maybe, but he did. “His expression is the same in all his photos! Who does that?”

“It’s just his face.”

“No, it isn’t. Look at the curve of his mouth here –wait, no, you can’t. Because it’s as straight as an uncooked string of spaghetti.”

“I think you’re weighing on this too much.”

“Well, I think you’re not weighing on this enough, ma’am.” Keiji did kind of miss the times he first met Hinata. The boy was so afraid he’d do something wrong, it was sort of amusing to watch him live off on his spinal reflexes. Like a bug.

Keiji felt an impulsive thought cross her head.  
The skins which she’d found; according to them, their body had three sections. They shattered, like a regular reptile’s skin would, but where were the scales if they were similar to reptiles? Why were there six holes punched –clearly by limbs– ,if they were similar to a freaking lizard?

Like a bug.

As far as they knew; saucers were attracted to salt, and heat. Like bugs. Not like any bug. Facial structure clearly suggested a species of ant. Do you know what most ant species have in common?

She rose to her feet. Of course. Of course. Hive mind. They had a hive mind. 

“Sir?” Hinata chirped, at the other side of the comm. 

“Ants. They’re ants.” She mumbled.

“As in… they’re so insignificant that beating them’ll be a piece of cake?”

“No, Hinata. They’re arthropods. They have a hive-mind.” She looks back at the comm. If that’s so, based on ant behavior… “I have to go. I think I might have an idea where our crewmembers might be.” She started running. 

“What?” The cringe in his voice was way too real. 

“Test the samples I sent. Compare them with… with a common ant’s DNA.” She was getting more and more frustrated by second. 

“Ants as in… ants?” He questions.

“Yes, A-N-T-S. Ants.” She’d literally spelled it out for him.

“Um… okay.” He finally accepted. 

“Keiji out.” She shutted the comm off. It was running on low battery anyways. 

If Captain Bokuto was actually where Keiji thought she’d be… she could only hope she is not too late.

Please be okay, please be okay, she thought to herself as she picked up her pace.


	10. Honey, Where Is My Artificial Field of Gravitational Pull?

“You know; you really weren’t the first person who came into my mind first. I mean, this, uh, this is so not your forte.” Tendou, thirty-six, admitted. A key shaped screwdriver was dangling off his lips, so his speech was a bit lisped. 

“I am sure there’s a but coming.” Wakatoshi raised a brow, expressionless.

“No. That was it, actually.” He shrugged.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” 

“Alright then. I’ll just…” He attempted –and actually didn’t fail– to tie a rope around his abdomen, for extra safety. Tendou wasn’t sure how this enhanced their well-being, but whatever. Wakatoshi was the kind of guy who knew this crap anyways. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.” Tendou chirped, as his good friend Wakatoshi pulled a rope –a rope? What is this, Soviet Union?\- that’s been tied to the spool on a bump on the wall. “And unsafe.”

“You talked me into this. And… well, as my ancestors from ancient times used to say: do it for the vine.” Wakatoshi murmured, tying the rope’s other end around a column. Tendou didn’t really understand –why were they using a bland, tethered rope. He didn’t even… where’d Wakatoshi… What? 

“That’s… isn’t that a plant?” He contemplated, as his good pal Wakatoshi’s efforts lifted him off the ground. “Whoa!” 

“It is. Nevermind.” He said, and kept pulling. He was doing alright, as he wasn’t showing any signs of physical distress. Tendou knew he was in physical distress. Frondians’ bones were the densest known. Time to tease, he thought to himself.

“I’d say you swept me off my feet but surely you don’t seem –oh crap, watch out!” Tendou barely dodged a column. 

“Sorry… you are not exactly the easiest person to do this with.” He’s started showing signs of physical effort. Tendou crossed his underarms.

“Are you calling me fat?” Tendou jokingly nagged.

“Well, you are not fat. On the contrary, I think you are underweight for a Frondian. But you are heavy.” He said, tugging the whole mass of Tendou with his own weight. 

“If you’re able to pull me with your weight… biology and Newton’s laws of physics suggest that you are the fat one, Wakatoshi.” Tendou mocked him.

“Yes, I am.” He grunted. “It is, however, essential for the mission.” One more step, and he was done. He tied the end of the rope to another column nearby. 

“How come?” Tendou asked him, pulling himself towards the center of the room –would it count as the room? He was literally dangling in the air. 

“Humans require nourishment regularly. If I was sent on a mission on a deserted area, and got trapped there –” He spoke, but was cut off by his friend. 

“Bullshit. I say you just love eating.” Tendou mumbled as he placed the anti-grativy particles’ tube into the slot.

“That, too.” He smiled weakly, and leaned on the wall. 

“Well. If it’s any consolation, I think you look strong rather than fat.” He turned and broke the tube –which meant the particles would be released into the artificial gravity 

“I know. That is my purpose.” He was no longer out of breath, which was indeed impressive –even though Tendou was not as heavy as your regular Frondian, he still weighed roughly three times more than your regular human. 

“Brace yourself.” He warned Wakatoshi, before turning the glass tube. Wakatoshi held on a nearby column, and nodded at him. This was where the tricky part was. He let go of the column right after opening it, and tried to hold onto something as he fell. You really, really shouldn’t be touching an artificial gravity device after tampering with it. It’s certainly advised against.   
Unlucky for Tendou, the small dent on the wall he grabbed a hold of failed to endure the ripples of the artificial gravity machine. 

“Tendou!” His friend noticed that it wasn’t going to last a bit earlier than he could comprehend. 

“Fuuuuuc –” He exclaimed and closed his eyes, as he fell to his inevitable death.   
Wait. Scratch that.  
He opened one of his eyes to peek. He wasn’t falling anymore. It felt like he was falling, but he wasn’t, no. Instead –

“God! You’re heavy.” Said Wakatoshi, holding him by the torso until the artificial gravity got cancelled. That was the first –and last– time Tendou heard more than a hint of hardship in his voice.

“You didn’t dislocate your shoulder, right?” Tendou asked, clearly worried.

“I do not think so.” He replied, with a much more mannered voice.

“I can’t believe that worked.” He murmured, wiping the sweat off his forehead. Wakatoshi frowned.

“You’re floating in the air. How is that not enough proof for you?”

“Come on, man. You know I wasn’t being literal.” Tendou sometimes couldn’t believe that Wakatoshi was a human. Humans, also known as Terrans, are famous for their ability to improvise, adapt, and tendency to allure other species with ease. Out of all the humans he met, Wakatoshi was the least… sarcastic. Well, it was probably because he wasn’t raised by humans. 

A small curve that formed on his mouth proved Tendou right, “Yes, I knew that.” Scratch that too. Stereotyping people is wrong, He reminded himself. Wakatoshi might not have been raised by humans, but he was raised as a human. Nothing could change that. 

“Ahh! Stop shitting me like that!” He floated next to his friend to playfully punch his arm. 

“We have to get out of here. Security will be here soon.” He tensed. He’d always been the goody-two-shoes among them, the crew. Tendou figured it wouldn’t be ideal for him to get caught like this, in here. Only… there was this one thing.

“How’ll they even come?” Tendou asked, in a mocking tone.

“We’ve got five minutes at best. Let’s get to the inventories to get what you need.”

“Relax,” He said, patting Wakatoshi, who emitted a reddish purple aura around his ears, on the shoulder. “I’ve got a guy.”

**meanwhile**

Hinata, seventeen, is about to perish.  
No, not literally. In fact, he’s about to perish at any aspect but that. He’s had a healthy breakfast of oats and fruits; he’s done his morning workout routine (he’d almost always focus on his legs), and he’s actually gotten his meds today. He’s never felt healthier in his life.  
Except –

“Whoa!” The first yelp of surprise came from an older woman, who was a communications officer. 

“What in –”

“Alright, guys. Who’s responsible for this shit?”

“The interns again?”

“Probably.”

“My experiment! You monsters! I worked  five hours for”

“I feel a bit… dizzy.”

“No –no, not on my –GODDAMNIT CARL!”

Everyone was distraught. It’s the perfect chance. He slid into the inventory –a place usually so organized, it could probably bring someone who appreciated neatness and organization to tears. Not anymore, though. The only thing that wasn’t floating was a piece of chewed gum stuck on a wall –ew.   
He knew he had to be quick. That was why he’d spent the most of the day with Co-Captain Sugawara. He’d treated Hinata as if he was a disciple of his, so his existence at near the inventory wouldn’t really be questioned. He grabbed the piece of platinum IX4 he needed, alongside with some unnecessary alnico alloy –would be easier to weed them out later than now. He stuffed them in his pocket.

“Hey, watch out!” He heard someone warn him. He ducked his head, as he turned and noticed a large person coming towards his neck, barely in time. 

“Thanks for the heads up.” He murmured. I hope they didn’t notice.

“No problem.” They answered, clearly uninterested. He sighed out of relief –so they hadn’t noticed. Good, good. Now, all he had to do was to reach Tendou in time, possibly help write the algorithm of the insane machine Akaashi’d designed, and try and find the android.   
Easy peasy. 

Had it been not for the laws of this realm, I’d have probably committed human sacrifice. By human I mean myself. And by sacrifice, I mean –

**meanwhile**

“Hey. So, I  know I’ve said you had six hours to wrap up an hour ago, buuut…” Said a certain intimidating voice, “I really need you to finish the test right now.” Oikawa-saucer, age unknown, felt livid.

The senior intern was holding a large burette of sulfuric acid in her hands, careful she was. But, “But… I haven’t even neutralized the substance yet!” panic, she started to.

“Well then, best go ahead and neutralize it now.” Oikawa’s eyes glimmered with a pinch of sadism. 

“I was.” She replied, calmer than your usual CS intern. She was a senior intern, maybe that was why. 

“Go ahead.” He gestured.

“It’s just that, uh, you, you’re –” Feeble, he thought, as she broke more than a sweat to find her way with the words.

“I’m what?” He asked, impatient. 

“Blocking the way.” She breathed out, directly staring at him.

Oh. “Okay.” He stepped out of her way. Then…  
Oikawa saucer didn’t really remember at what order it happened, but shit did indeed happen. His feet? Swept off the ground. Intern’s forward momentum? Made her clash into him. Highly dense sulfuric acid inside the burette? All over his right shoulder. Intern? Visibly panicking. His clothes? Shredded in a way people who are with the military branch of this ship are.  
No matter, if the artificial gravity was still in function, he’d have fallen down. A hiss rose from his throat. He felt the elongated forehead of a Horusan shrink, and his vision multiply as if his original eyes had come back; right before the world went blank.

Shiiiiiiit.

**meanwhile**

Keiji, thirty-three, didn’t know what to do. The critical period of time had ended.  If they were down there this whole time, she thought, then they’re all dead.  
Kageyama was still looking for them. He didn’t really have anything better to do, and he had to spend his whole time aboard this ship in some place cold until they reached GK-64 to either make him back into a human, or let him stay that way with a few upgrades to prevent his tissues from decaying. In fact, he’d volunteered to look for them. Well, not them, their bodies. If he found them, they’d be dead.  
Dead.

“Akaashi, are you okay?” The stranger seated on a dead woman’s chair, asked. Keiji shook her head, to retrieve herself from her absent-minded state. 

“Sorry, captain. We haven’t been able to detect new life on those last three planets. It’s kind of a…” She was sick of pretending. Sick of it. 

“Bummer?” Stranger said, sipping a nonfat zero-sugar pomegranate juice. Keiji had to admit, the creature was good. Captain Bokuto would almost always try and fail to diet at these times of the year. It was probably because the admission ceremony to the academy was nearing, and she was expected to be ready to deliver a speech. She always wanted to look good in the suit, or maybe fit her old academy uniform. If she hadn’t known captain for so long, maybe she too, would be fooled.  
If the creature was so good, then how come her allergy to pomegranate had gone unnoticed? Was that on purpose? Did pomegranate contain a chemical these creatures needed to survive?

“Not the word I’d use, but yes.” She smiled weakly, glancing at her lap. They were completely alone in the bridge, if you didn’t count A.N.G.I. –Artificial New Generation Intelligence. She was better at her job than Klaus at all aspects (she was developed by Horus after all,) but she almost always ignored you, unless it was an emergency. She activated herself by reading the stress levels of the people on the bridge. Be it an individual stressing over a failed yet important assignment, or over some carnivore hostile creature about to eat you. Akaashi was nowhere near that –

“I sense some distress. Is everything alright?” Alright, Keiji did not expect that.

“What? No, everything’s peachy.” Said Bokuto, totally missing out the fact that you had to be at least half-assedly literal with artificial intelligence.

“Peachy?”

“Everything’s alright, Angie. Why don’t you go, uh, bother some interns? I heard they’re throwing a small party down deck U.” The shadow of Bokuto offered, as the actual Bokuto would almost always do the same thing. AI had never turned against mankind, or any kind –but they did generally love to screw with people with their messed up, but –mostly– safe pranks.

“Okay.” She agreed, almost enthusiastically, turning her screen on the bridge off. 

Bokuto, or rather the stranger wearing her clothes, turned towards Keiji in the seat. “What’s on your mind, Keiji?” 

“As I said, I’m just… bummed out we didn’t get to discover any new –”

“Alright. You don’t have to tell me.” She got up from the captain’s seat, and approached Keiji. “But I want to cheer you up anyways.” Keiji felt like laughing –it usually was the other way around. 

“Sure, captain.” She forced herself to smile –thank orb she wasn’t half bad at faking a smile. 

“No.” She frowned. To see a frown of that kind on her face… it almost made Keiji sort of think maybe there was no creature after all. Maybe this was the captain. She had to glance at the pomegranate juice in the creature’s hands to stay focused. 

“What?”

“I’m not your captain,” Bokuto said, with all seriousness. She took Keiji’s hands in her own. Is the creature gonna… confess? That she’s not actually captain and… and all that… Goddammit. where’s a lens-recorder when you need one? Unfortunately, she’d left her last lens recorder back at her room. She cursed herself, cussed in all three languages she’s fluent at. “As of now, I am your friend.” Keiji breathed a long breath out, one she didn’t realize she was holding in. Yeah… I guess that makes more sense.

“Okay. Alright. Kotarou.” 

“See, that’s better!” If this truly was Captain Bokuto, she’d have known. That she hates being called anything but Captain on the bridge. That she might be a goofball, and sometimes appear as an airhead; but she was nonetheless one of the brightest people to exist among the Planetary Council of Milky Way’s organs. That she does take her job seriously. That she cares about her crew above anything else. “What would you like to do?” That she would never, under no circumstance, leave the bridge unguarded. 

Change of plans. The priority was to find the originals to prove the existence of impostors. Plan had failed. New priority: catch them, and force them to shapeshift into their original form. She glanced around the bridge. Nothing remarkable to use as a weapon, except the emergency axes. Don’t ask why they exist, because even Keiji didn’t know. Maybe to tear computers down in a case of emergency? That was her best guess. 

“We shouldn’t leave the bridge to its own.” Her right palm, where the micro-tracer chip resided on, itched. She had to plant it on Bokuto, somehow. 

“I’ll call Suga in.” That she’d never addressed her co-captain as ‘Suga’ (Sugawara during the shift and on business, Kou when casual. Yes, they did call each other ‘Kou’. Yes, it felt draining; but also spectacular to Keiji.).

“Okay.” She did his best to look down enough for Bokuto-saucer to give her a hug. 

“What’s wrong?” Bokuto turned towards her. Keiji felt no remorse nor guilt at all, as she went in for a hug and buried her head on Bokuto’s shoulder. “Aww, Keiji.” She felt an immediate pat on her head, and another hand clenching her shoulder. The hands were supposed to feel comforting, yet they felt out of the ordinary and awkward. She didn’t let it show, as if she patted a tracker on the impostor’s back. This way, the creature wouldn’t be able to disappear into the less known, deserted parts of this ship size of a small country. Keiji would have a clue.   
The point is, she didn’t aim for revenge, no. She’s never aimed for revenge. It’s really, really not her style. It was more about, protecting the crew. Doing what Kotarou would’ve done. Maybe helping her reach eternal rest.   
A not-so-distant memory clogs her train of thought.

“Keiji?” Kotarou chirped, spoiling the soothing silence.

“Yes?” Keiji replied, a glass of intoxicating fluid in her hand.

“If I die, I want you to officiate my funeral.” She said, her face completely blank. A waterfall of worry washed over Keiji for a split second.

“Are you dying?” She asked, trying to be calm. She sipped her drink to make it at least a bit easier. 

“No, not that I know of.” She let out a small laugh. “It’s just –you never know. I want you to officiate it.”

“I don’t know, Kotarou –”

“Come ooonn!” She made the face. The face number twelve. One of her many faces Keiji can’t really resist.

“Well… alright. How would you like your funeral to be?”

“A large party.”

“A party?” She raised a brow. 

“Yes. I want you to hire live music and get the best caterers in the galaxy for it. I don’t want the menu to have dolphin meat, though. Also I want a vintage disco ball.” She listed, as if it was your good-old auditory grocery list.

“You do realize they’re a bit hard to find.”

“Yeah –doesn’t have to be actually authentic. You can just 3D print one.” She shrugged. Keiji chuckled. 

“Alright. Anything else?” She asked, trying and failing to hide her mouth curving.

“I want my body to be catapulted into the nearest black hole. If that’s not possible, a neutron-star or a supernova will make do. I also want Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up to play during that, to rickroll everyone one last time.” She chugged the remains of her pomegranate vine.

“You… what is a rickroll? No, no,” She poured herself another glass. “Not even gonna question. Go on.” She encouraged her.

Kotarou, was more than willing to continue, that was until she felt an indescribable pain in her stomach. The growl was loud enough to be heard by Keiji, and possibly any of those kind people who were on the balcony downstairs. “Ugh…” She grabbed her abdomen. “Keiji… I don’t feel so good.” She kneeled. Keiji got up and went to her side.

“Oh dear. Let’s, um, get you to the bathroom.” She said, putting her hands over her shoulders.

“Let’s… let’s hurry.” She replied, leaning on Keiji.

She suddenly realized her surroundings. She had been hugging ‘Captain’ Bokuto for far too long. She cleared her throat and detached herself from the creature. “Sorry.”

“No need.” Another pat on her back. She was slowly getting real sick of physical contact. 

“Alright. I’ll… I’ll be in my room for the rest of the loop, if that’s in order.” She asked, visibly blushing a blue hue. She felt the creature’s –Bokuto’s– lips curve into a pseudo smile.

“Of course it is.” Bokuto-saucer spoke with a voice soft as silk, as Sugawara stepped foot inside the bridge. 

“Oh, did I interrupt?” He asked in a calm and sweet, yet menacing tone, almost the second the door opened. Translation: This is a workplace. Kindly refrain from intimacy. Which was, the way Sugawara usually was. Keiji sometimes thought that she was not quite qualified for… well, for starters, all of that.

“No.” Keiji said, turning away from Bokuto, going for the exit. “Have a fruitful shift, co-captain.” She left without expending any other word, five minutes before the start of the gravitational crisis.


	11. Naughty Kids Who Fled From Their Home

“What?!” Bokuto-saucer exclaimed. He’d left the bridge a few minutes earlier, entrusting it to the so called co-captain of the ship. He hated his face, to be frank. He hated all their faces. 

His biological and hierarchical peer, gulped. “Pikors has been caught.” He said. He’d never seen their leader that furious. Bokuto-saucer’s face started to ripple.

“How did this happen?” He asked, as calm as possible –which wasn’t that kind.

“Well, apparently someone poured a burette of dense sulfuric acid on –”

“No, I meant how did this happen?” He repeated the question, using the very same tone.

“I, uh, I’m afraid I don’t understand.” The saucer, creature, or Maeledictorian as they called themselves; gulped. Alright. She’s overwhelmed. How cute. He rolled his eyes, colored bright yellow instead of pitch black, the color of his original eyes. 

“I mean where did we go wrong?” He repeated, toning down his anger as Pik giving out his identity wasn’t this poor girl’s doing. Probably.   
Ah, this is not  a convenient time at all, he thought to himself. The ship and his home planet were soon going to be the closest they’ve been since I.S.T. sent a landing party to the surface. That was how they got on board. That was how they escaped. But now? He’d never felt more trapped. 

“I, don’t know, Klac.” He shivered, because of the mention of his name.

“I told you to call me something else.” He breathed out. That was the name that given to him by the –

“You didn’t dignify what, though.” She murmured. 

“Ahmed. Kopoklo, the Ruiner of Frond. Shithead. I really don’t have a preference.” He sighed, the thoughts and devotion to the Queen strengthening every second. He cursed the ship for being one of the faster ones.

“Alright. I will call you, um, Kal if that’s okay?”

“Sure,” He pinched the bridge of his –more like a perfect imitation of Bokuto’s– nose. “Thanks for the info, Şela. Go back to your station.”

“Aye aye, captain.” She said, giving him the old sailor salute. He hated that, too. He hated everything about this ship, and the cultures and customs on board. That wasn’t exactly his fault, though. His biology –his genes made it difficult for him to feel safe and sound anywhere but a dry and scorching hot environment.   
Maeledictorians, the name they call themselves, had adapted to living under the surface. The atmosphere of the planet was far thinner than the limit that could sustain organic life. The radiation that came from the star of the system, cosmic trash, or cold –atmosphere could not hold any of those back. So the microscopic creatures that the Maeledictorian had evolved from, came to existence near the core of the planet. Wild, right? Well, not really. Science had never been Kal’s strong suit, so his knowledge of it was severely limited. He was born and raised to do one thing, and one thing only: to serve the Queen. Which made his nausea even worse.   
Kal tried to ignore his throbbing headache, and failed. Well then. He was on a break as the captain. Might as well go and ask a ‘prisoner’ some ‘questions’.

*

Saucer who had taken the shape of Oikawa Tooru from planet Horus, age still unknown, was more than aware of the fact that he’d screwed up. He woke up in a cold, glass cell; surrounded by no one but one person: Keiji Akaashi of Orb. That was strange. That person had nothing to do with the security department. As Damian from Mean Girls would’ve said, she didn’t even go there. Earth customs didn’t appeal to him at all, but out of all six movies from Terra he’d seen, Mean Girls was the one that grew on him the most. He had one teensy problem with it –those girls weren’t made of plastic, they seemed to have flesh and bone similar to other humans. 

“Good evening.” Keiji started off, clearing her throat. Saucer, whose name is Pikors –Piks or Pik for short– by the way, raised a brow –still in Oikawa’s shape. “My name is Keiji Akaashi, though I believe you already know my name.”

“Oh, I know more than just your name, Orbian.” He slurred his words, like a snake would. Was this part of the intimidation, or just how they spoke as a species? No, Keiji thought it was intimidation. He still held a perfectly normal Horusan physique. 

“I’m not…” Keiji sighed. “What do they call you?” The creature hissed out a name unintelligible to Keiji’s ears. No, not unintelligible –just really high-pitched. “What?” She asked, covering her ears. 

“What, your feeble Orbian ears can’t catch up to me?” He asked.

“Apparently not,” She said, taking notes. 

“I was kidding anyways. My name’s Shanise.” He leaned to the glass cell’s wall.

“A perfectly common Terran name?” She cocked an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” He assured her. Keiji was not convinced, but did not budge one bit. Orb, I wish I was allowed to use the lie detector. But that was only available to two people on board: Inspector Shimizu and a person from Kaloma: the planet of waves. 

“What is your origin?” She asked, insistently.

“Do you have the authority to question me?” He frowned, thinking. 

“I am the L.I.S.T., Shanise. I am in charge of this more than anyone on board.” A blatant lie that she hoped he’d eat right away. 

He looked left, and right, then shrugged. “Alright, fair enough. I’m from… um, space.” Right. He’d eaten it. 

“A bit more specific, please?” Life forms Keiji usually deals with, they’re more cooperative, and less cocky. Maybe this creature was still imitating Oikawa, or that their personalities were just similar.   
A smile crossed Keiji’s mouth, disappearing after her realization that Oikawa was no more. 

“Alright. I’m from space around here.” 

“Yes. That is exactly what I was asking.” She blinked, face stern. She then went to the glass cell’s controller computer, and entered a password –courtesy of Co-Captain Sugawara. 

“I’m glad we agree.” A smile formed on his face. It was such an Oikawa-esque smile.

“Do you think you are some sort of… outcast among your own kin?” She randomly asked. It was common for unknown aliens to sneak on board to start new lives, and so on. But, Keiji guessed, this was more of a ‘hijack’ than a simple ‘Jack sneaking into Titanic’. 

“Duh. Why else would I be here with you losers and your council?” He blew her off.

“You shouldn’t speak of the council that way.” Keiji absent-mindedly warned him, her mind more at the task at her hands. To be truthful she was grateful that the council had accepted to take his Terran heritage in attention when accepting her to Academy –one could not simply walk into the Academy that easily, mainly because Academy was founded by the council. You had to have at least slight of a connection to a council-member planet. But, to be more truthful, she didn’t give a damn about those ilkist bastards. 

“What are you gonna do, stab me?” He mocked.

“You’re not that far from the truth.” She instructed the computer to get an in-skin sample from ‘Shanise’. 

“Ow!” He scoffed, frustrated, as a rather large needle stabbed his arm and drew the necessary amount of body fluid. “That hurt.” 

“I wouldn’t have to use such old dated tech if you were a bit more cooperative. Just saying.” She took the tube that had been transported to the slot under the computer. That also was a lie. She couldn’t have risked a shapeshifter getting loose on board. Well, another shapeshifter. 

“Admit it, you just wanted to see me in pain.” He offered with a snarky remark.

“Why would I want to see someone, particularly you in pain?” She asked, pocketing the sample.

“Orbians are known to be sadists.” He shrugged.

“Why? Have you ever met one?” She asked.

“Yes, and she stabbed my poor arm with an evil needle.” He shivered a fake and overdone shiver. 

“But you’re mistaken,” Keiji smirked, before turning her back to the creature known as Shanise. “I’m not Orbian.”

“You are. Wait, I thought you were. You aren’t?” He asked, confused. 

“No. I belong to no ilk. I have no home. I am the true outcast. You, by that logic, are just a kid who fled from his home. Shanise.”

“Oh, that. I’d watch my words if I were you, hybrid.” He sneered. Keiji could take her reply lots of different ways. She could indicate that he was in no position to threaten her, or that her feeble ears were not able to hear her. She chose a different path. 

“My, words are not visible to my eyes. Are they to yours? That might indicate a serious mental disorder.” She asked, startled.

“Stop sassing me.” He murmured.

She turned her back to the cell. “As you wish, Shanise.” 

“Stop calling me that!”

“Why? Is it not your name?” Keiji knew she had to get going, but the possibility that he could leak out some actual information kept her anchored to the room. She turned her head to the cell. 

“It is. You may call me Shanise, not Shanise!” The creature hosting Oikawa’s shape pushed on the cell’s wall. 

“I fail to, uh, see a difference between them.” She shrugged.

“There is a difference. You see, in my culture, Shanise means, um, good luck, while… while Shanise means –” The sound of automatic door opening cut the creature off.

“Akaashi! There you are,” Said Bokuto who had just stepped foot inside the room, clearly worried. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Oh. What for?” She was glad she pocketed the sample before it was too late. The DNA sample Hinata’d found on his desk earlier was not much to go on, it was barely skin. Now that she had blood –or whatever body fluids these species might have– she could synthesize as solution that possibly could disable them from shape shifting, thus –

“I was worried.” She eyed the prisoner. “What were you doing here anyways?” 

“My job.” She said. Bokuto smiled, hooking an arm around Keiji’s shoulders. Keiji felt her frame being smothered against her burly body. 

“But this… abomination, yeah, abomination isn’t your job.” She managed to say.

“He is from an ilk we’ve never encountered before.” Keiji spoke.

“Yeah, but questioning this goon is my duty, as the captain of the ship.” She declared, an unnecessary amount of gloat could be sensed in her tone and body language. Too much. 

“With all due respect, captain, my oath as the L.I.S.T., which included several sub-clauses on something such as,” She gestured towards ‘Shanise’, “That, clarifies that I am fully in charge of situations like these. Technically, he’s why I’m on this ship.” She explained, not wanting a bit to leave those two alone. 

“Is anyone going to ask me which I prefer, or –”

“No, shut up.” Bokuto shut him up. “Yeah, I get that, but I am the captain of this ship, and –” 

“And yet, you’re still not the most authorized person.” A quiet, threatening, yet chivalrous voice filled the room. It’s Shimizu Kiyoko, the Inspector. She fixed her pink glasses. “Ladies, I may take the case from here.”

“Inspector? But,” Bokuto let out a crusty laugh. “Is that really necessary? I could easily handle this task.”

“You could indeed.” She walked towards them. keiji knew not to oppose Inspector Shimizu, so she remained silent. Yet apparently, the saucer didn’t. Another thing about Captain Bokuto: she really appreciates the jurisdiction of Earth, so she appreciates Inspector Shimizu. Well, appreciated.  
Don’t do this now, not now, not now, please not now.

“So why don’t I?”

“Because, my dear captain, I happen to be stepping in.” She walked her past. 

“But, but that’s –”

“You’re awfully persistent today,” She cocked a brow. “You are rarely persistent, Bokuto. Is something bothering you?”

“No, no no –not at all.” She rubbed her temples, genuinely exhausted. “Guess I’m just a bit tired. Sorry, inspector. I’ll leave you to it” She murmured, defeated. Keiji internally let out a sigh of relief. 

Inspector Shimizu nodded, “Good. Now, if you don’t mind, this is a top secret interrogation.”

“Sure, sure!” Bokuto dismissed her with her hand. “Luck be with you.” Slang. Slang, obviously. Keiji tilted her head. As of this week, her usage of slang had decreased. She was a heavy user of slang, old or new, always had been. Keiji was sure the slang the creature used just now was… a coincidence. Not meant to be used because Bokuto uses slang lots. Used. Why had the saucer ignored that while impersonating Bokuto? Why ignore this and the pomegranate allergy? “C’mon Keiji, let’s go.” She hadn’t removed her arm from her shoulders, so Keiji had no choice but to walk out as Bokuto turned away from the glass cell.   
Keiji nodded a brief thanks, to the inspector. Although, it didn’t have to mean thank you. It could mean goodbye, hello, I acknowledge your existence, or even the rebellion starts at dawn. Didn’t really matter what it meant. Not at all. No. Humans and their strange mimics. They got by, so Keiji pretended to get by.

“Captain?” Keiji said, freeing herself from her beefy prison. There were days she’d daydream about being held like that by her. It was hard, differentiating them. She had to remind herself more often that she brushed her teeth. 

“Yeah?”

“I have to get to the cold room.” She burst. Oh no. That was a lie. She’d spent enough hours of her day there, and there was no way someone who could successfully impersonate the captain of a starship would fall for it.

Bokuto-saucer tilted her head, then nodded. “Okay. I gotta go get some sleep, anyways. Lousy Terran brain, am I right?” She cackled. Keiji couldn’t help but to smile. 

“Right. Good night, captain.” A Terran custom. There was no night in space –no, that’s wrong, space was all night. 

“Night, Keiji.” She said, turning away from Keiji. She watched her go, trying to ignore the fact that it was going to be one of the last times she could appreciate her. She watched her go, only to realize one more thing, a thing that made her blood go warm. 

Her room isn’t that way.

*

“Is it ready yet?” An orange blur of enthusiasm briefly passed through Tendou’s field of view.

“No.” He replied, tightening a screw on the deck of the small yet mighty machine he was attempting to create. 

“How about now?” The orange blur came back into his field of view after a few short minutes. He sighed.

“No.” He impatiently replied. The deck of the machine, the last step, was almost complete. All he needed was a few more minutes.

“Is it –”

“Oh my god, no!”

“But I’m already done with the algorithm.” Hinata pouted. 

Tendou, young but already knackered, had no choice but to sigh. “That’s your problem. Besides, I’ll be done in five.”

“Hours?!” He yelled, probably not meaning to. The thoughts that cursed Tendou and his timing skills poured over from his consciousness to Tendou’s. Don’t worry, though –Tendou knows people almost always don’t mean what comes to their mind at first, if anything the first thing that comes to their mind indicates how they were raised. So he was nowhere near surprised as Hinata’s thoughts turned into less-aggressive moans of Oh man, I really don’t want to wait five hours.

“Minutes.” He clarified. 

“Oh.”

“So hold your horses.” He murmured. 

“How do you know the saying, hold your horses?” Hinata tilted his head.

“It’s an old Frond saying.” Tendou explained.

“Odd. It’s also an old Earth saying.” He shrugged.

“No it isn’t.”

“What? It is.” He insisted.

“No. That’s the universal translator. I said something drastically different than what you heard.” Tendou bound two strings to the two different spots on the device to test if its centre of gravity was in the middle of the machine –if it was, it’d be an engineering wonder, because Tendou had less than two hours of his spent with this particular babe. 

“What?” Hinata questioned. 

“I know, it’s a bit confusing,” He picked out a screw that was hanging off his lips. “When you use an old proverb or something as such, the translator ultimately translates it into a proverb or something that means the same thing to the translatee. In this case, you’re the translatee.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. You wanna build shit like these?” He pointed at the universal translator with his forbidden screwdriver. “You have to code like there’s no tomorrow.”

“Cool, I didn’t know that.” His eyes gleamed over the small device that hangs on the wall. 

“Done.” Tendou announced, after four minutes. He put the screwdriver down, and picked the device up –so light, so fragile; yet has so much capacity. 

“Yeaahh!” Hinata jumped in excitement. 

“But… we have to test it.” He said, eyeing Hinata.

“Oh! You can test it on me.” He accepted Tendou’s silent offer.

“Thanks,” He said, setting the machine. Co-Captain Sugawara had blessed them with the opportunity to hack into the medical database of the ship. Tendou knew Hinata was the Hinata, so all he had to do was to compare his brain waves with the ones device would pick up.

“So? Does it work?”

“Think of something that calms you.” He murmurs, and Hinata complies. 

“Okay.”

Tendou is more than relieved to see that the device’s findings match the medical database on Hinata’s brain waves almost identically. He smiles, “It works just fine.”

“YEEEAAAH!” 

“Alright. Let’s roll.” He put the device inside the secret pocket of his vest, and nudged Hinata. 

“LET’S ROLL!” He shouted whilst exiting the room, drawing the attention of half a dozen crewmembers. 

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, kid, but you gotta be more careful.” Tendou whispered to Hinata. 

“Yeah. Sorry, got excited.” He murmured, embarrassed. A few of them lost their interest –an intern being excited on board of Sirius is nothing. But most kept staring. An intern with a Frondian? This ought to be interesting

“How do you do, fellow crewmembers? We were just passing by. Great day, eh?” He said, in a common Terran language, known as Spanish. His accent was dreadful and dry, so it made Hinata snort. It made the others snort. The whole hall of six people snorted –not cocaine, but humor. Though, Tendou could arrange that first other one, too. 

*

“Hello, love.” She heard her own voice. How was that possible? But in the end, nothing really made sense when you were as close to death as Kotarou was. She weakly opened her eyes. She saw her own frame, towering over her. But, how?

Then, she remembered. “Scum,” She greeted the shapeshifting intruder who had taken over the ship. Her ship. She’d never felt so powerless, yet so furious. “I like what you’ve done with my hair.” She smirked, her bloody teeth showing. If only I could move… She thought. there probably was a strong sedative in her system. 

“Thanks, I don’t give a damn what you think.” The creature wore Kotarou’s sleek and confident hair in two pigtails.

“Really? I’ve had grey highlights in my hair since my Academy days. You could say I outrank you by experience. You should give a damn.” She offered. 

“Well, I outrank you by intelligence,” The creature said, its face shifting in ripples of skin. “They’re close, captain. I have to get rid of any evidence that might give me out.” The creature was no longer Bokuto. It bared its teeth, and drew out its claws that were longer than a bear’s. It roared, and by the smell of its mouth, Kotarou knew. She knew that the creature was going to devour her alive. She knew that, and she could do nothing about it, not even move a finger. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t fight. 

She could face it, though. “They say you are what you eat, but I’d have never thought one would take it this far.” She murmured, trying not to think of how she loved to live.   
How she wanted to live with Akaashi.   
She failed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ilkist means racist or xenophobic.  
> Also, I have little to no idea what I am doing with life, or this fic. Thanks.


	12. Whiptail Golem-Feline of Aldebaran 2.0

Inspector of the esteemed spaceship called Sirius, who wore a long and black coat, finally left the prison to the guards’ hands, her hands busy going over the notes she’d taken on a small notebook. Call her old school, she liked the way paper smelled and felt. Of course, no tree was harmed whilst making papers and notebooks she regularly uses. They were synthesized from artificial cellulose, or made from rocks. After all, trees had been a delicacy for over three centuries now.   
She tucked the pen in her pocket, and revised what she’d noted: the creature, a Maeledictorian as they call themselves, had originated from planet Zeta-B-9. A planet that was colonized by Gamzen AI, a planet that was deemed unfit to sustain life. He admitted they resided near the cooler core of the planet. His name was Pikors, and there were three more of his kind on board, one of which had indeed impersonated the captain. She was unable to pique out their reasons of leaving their home planet and trying to take over a small country of a ship with only four people. If she had to, she’d guess these were the ‘teenage’ equivalent of the Maeledictorian species –impulsive, unbalanced, immature.   
**Subject Pikors confirmed that their primary source of nutrient was iron salts and potassium.** She flipped the page. **Known Weaknesses: Extremely low or high levels of pH, temperatures lower than 295 Kelvin, an organic Terran compound known as honey. Personal Conclusion: Four of these intruders felt unsafe and unhappy on their home planet, thus attempting to escape in such a rushed way. Suggestion: Their ability to shapeshift is hazardous. Do not let your guard down. Approach with caution.**  
As she was satisfied with the notes, she tucked them inside her pocket. Her left hand remained there, to ensure the safety of the note. Not that it felt unsafe, or anyone would dare to pickpocket her –she already had the note memorized. Perks of a photographic memory. She just was overprotective of her notes and papers. Even to Koushi, they were mostly off limits.   
Speaking of Koushi –she had to find him. Surely, it’d be a lot easier to find him than to directly find Akaashi. Koushi’d said she was going through a grief’s denial state, so Kiyoko wasn’t really sure if she wanted to find Akaashi. She certainly didn’t excel at emotional support, or emotional  anything; that was Koushi’s specialty.   
So Kiyoko’s oxfords’ kept clicking the ground, as she walked. She blinked, and then a blur of grey ran past her. She blinked again. What was that? There rarely was any running at the halls of Sirius.  
An optical illusion? Maybe an excited intern? Probably an excited intern. She paid no further mind to the grey blur. 

*

The halls of Sirius the Spaceship had never seem so tall to Keiji before, not even that one time when Captain Bokuto had gotten herself merked by an unknown deep space spy during a vital political party held inside the ship. They seemed longer, more crowded, and more suffocating. Or maybe that was because she was literally sprinting. She’d never been the one for athletics. Her more Terran than Orbian physiology did not possess any sweat glands –she couldn’t afford overheating.   
She had to know. ‘Captain’, was using her few hours of free time of the loop –the day. She supposedly slept during that time. In her chambers, or one of the hammocks at the Vision Area. Why was ‘she’, going to the externals of the ship, where none of the personnel (except of course Keiji and three Terrans who were from the Neptune colony) had rooms? 

“Akaashi. What’s the hurry?” A passerby supervisor asked her, baffled. It’s rare to see someone running down the halls of the ship –cardio training was done at the fitness centers, and long distance transportation was handled by ship-wide transporters. She couldn’t risk using one, as to avoid unnecessary usage of the device all transportations were saved under classified documents that belonged to the council and could only be seen by someone with a clearance level above six. Meaning she wouldn’t be able to delete it. Also, she had no idea if saucers were able to reach transporter data –as said, she could not risk it. 

“Antimatter emergency.” She said, without slowing down.

“You aren’t an engineer.” He cocked an eyebrow. She really didn’t have time for that. 

“No. No wait, I meant to say yes. I mean –that’s how urgent it is.” She replied quickly, then scolded herself for sounding like an inadequate teenager. Supervisor though, who hadn’t bought it one bit, let her go and shrugged. Her mind didn’t dwell too much on it.   
She glanced at her wristwatch, after a few more yards. Klaus was asleep, as per usual during this time of the day. She didn’t really need him to track a small bug, as the wristwatch was still active. The target had stopped, and the distance between Keiji and the target was decreasing rapidly. A hundred and fifty meters… A hundred and seventeen meters… Keiji touched her belt’s holster to check if her stun gun was with her –she could need it. She never thought she’d be using –hell, she’d be thinking of using it– on board of Sirius. Twenty-three meters… She spotted the door of the room saucer was in –a supply closet? Not only a supply closet, the second largest supply closet on board of the ship. Those were built near the outer edges of the ship, as supplies and cleanerbots do not really require warmth. Of course. With one final push of sprint, she made it.   
The door wasn’t locked, as she presumed it would be. Stopping so suddenly made her realize that she was severely out of breath. Her heart pounded like it wanted to get out of Keiji’s body –it probably did, all the mechanical energy she produced was now turning into heat. Still, she couldn’t let that stop her, after coming this far. She abruptly opened the door and let herself in, her stun gun ready in both her hands.   
There was one thing, though. The room was gone. Was it her vision? Was her sight betraying her, after running such a distance with little to no stamina? She tried to keep her breaths in control.  
But why in hell the darkness one would see before blacking out would seem furry? 

“They say you are what you eat, but I’d have never thought one would take it this far.” She heard a weak mumble. Is that… She touched the blackness of fur. It was as soft as a cat’s. She then heard a growl, one that belonged to something she’d never encountered. The fur under her palms vibrated, and she assumed it was her cue to remove her hand. The fur, shifted, turning towards Keiji.   
Face of the beast, contained of four colors in total – black, dark black, darker black, and red eyes. The shape of it could only be described as a nightmare-infested child’s drawings. So big it coated whole of her field of vision. Eyes so red it appeared the beast had been blessed by the gods of war. So dark it resembled a night without skylight, one that lacks the stars.   
And it still did nothing, until the beast roared. A roar unlike a Terran tiger’s, a roar unlike a Frondian plethorana’s, a roar unlike… well, your regular Jeranian’s. It resembled all of them at the same time, yet none of them. She felt its nasty breath and its foul spit on her face. She found herself unable to move. The fear it produced helped Keiji regain her coldness, then she sensed something else. Smell of the beast’s mouth –salty, sweet, and fruity. Then she spotted the tracer she’d placed on the saucer on the beast. She narrowed her eyes. It’s the shifter.   
She shot it with the stun gun. The feeble lasers of it did nearly nothing to the weirdly feline-like creature, though Keiji reckoned it at least slightly hurt as the way it moved. 

“Oh no.” She sighed, dodging its tail but losing the stun gun in the process. She’d shot her with the most intensive stun setting. She could maybe set it to kill, but the stun gun had rolled away so far.   
Also, she still didn’t understand the physics of how a creature this big could maneuver so well in a room that size. It was a rather large supply closet, but it still was a supply closet.

Okay. Alright, she thought to herself, as the beast eyed her warily. Options. What are my options? she dodged another attack of its, by throwing herself on the ground. I’m just going to call this creature Red. It’ll intimidate me less. she thought, as she looked Red in the eyes. That definitely helped a bit.   
Red limits my field of vision. I don’t know what’s on the other side, but I know for a fact that this room is definitely a supply closet. So it has cleaning products. Most cleaning products are basic, except from hydrochloric acid. She kneeled down and then jumped –things she’d do to not die did sometimes surprise Keiji. Almost like she actually did not deliberately want to. She’d always thought she’d say whatever and accept it if anything dangerous of this sort happened to her. Well, now it was the case and she wasn’t saying whatever nor accepting it. She was going to live. She was going to live, and capture the saucer to prove that this was an act of an organization, rather than an individual –namely, Shanise.  
She had to get her hands on some sort of acid. An acid dense enough with a low level of pH hurt all sorts of organic life. It worked well enough on Shanise. But how? She couldn’t just walk past Red. Earlier when she’d tased Red, its abdomen had neared the ceiling for at least a few seconds. Definitely enough time to slide through the gap between Red’s tummy and the floor. But how?  
The tail whipped dangerously close to Keiji’s ear. She grimaced. She was completely unarmed, as she could see bits of her stun gun near Red’s feet. It’d been smashed, perfect. This was a supply closet, so it offered no kinds of melee or tech weapons. One way left, then. She grabbed her own left wrist, and pressed her nails down at it. She only had one shot. Better be safe. 

“Ah! You… feline creature!” She yelled at Red, blue of the inside of her wrist more visible than ever. Red turned its face to her. “I named you Red if that’s okay.” She said, in an attempt of misdirection. It’s what she’d have done.  
She clawed her own wrist, aiming at the vein with one of the highest rates of blood transportation. She aimed at Red’s eyes, as pale blue blood cold as ice shot from her wrist. As Red’s abdomen raised, she slid through the gap under it, as she held her wrist. She couldn’t afford to lose too much blood –she needed her blood. Rational part of her brain scolded herself for being so impulsive. But a significantly larger part, congratulated her on getting to the other side.

“Akaashi?” A distant voice rang her ears. Oh no. Not again. She didn’t want to face that. No. She sometimes still heard her voice, but it wasn’t appropriate right now. She had to focus. 

“Akaashi. It’s me.” She ignored it, then rose and took a few quick steps towards the hydrochloric acid –she was so glad that Terrans hardly bothered to find a less-corrosive compound for cleaning. She grabbed the glass bottle that held the acid. She glanced at Red –it still was fumbling with its eyes. Keiji had some more minutes. How to make it hurt more, just in case? her other hand grabbed a potassium hydroxide based detergent. Highly toxic to any soil known. Therefore, highly toxic to any organic life known. Could work.   
Hydrochloric acid’s fumes were highly corrosive as well, specially to the respiratory systems. Keiji compared a few of her ideas, then found covering her nose and mouth with a piece of fabric and holding her breath as much as possible most reasonable. Now, all she had to do was to grab some gloves and cut one of them into bandages to cover her left wrist, and use the other to block the fumes out.   
Her handiwork was quick –thanks to those years she spent helping around the house. They did actually show themselves useful, how surprising. 

“Aakaashi! Snap out of it!” She notices that Red is no longer in pain. Well, the voice does help her sometimes. If she lives long enough to survive this, she could get some help about the voice. She threw the entire glass of acid at Red’s forehead. The glass shattered to hundreds of pieces, as the acid poured over its black form. Hardly any fume is released –kind of makes Keiji feel like an idiot, standing with a glove on her face. An insanely inhumane shriek rose from its guts, as the black fur and enormous physique that Red carried melted away to an unconscious creature. Must be a saucer’s real form. She let out a shaky breath, as she leaned on a nearby wall and slid down. The piece of glove around her left wrist is already damp with blood, and tight. 

“Klaus.” She spoke to her wristwatch. He was bound to be awake as of now. 

“Akaashi, you’re bleeding! Why are you blee–”

“Yes, Ms. Akaashi?” Klaus replied. 

“Alert Co-Captain Sugawara of my position.” She demanded. “Also, could you maybe freeze my wrist?”

“As you wish.” He kindly said, before freezing her wrist. It stung, but it was necessary because Keiji was almost certain she wouldn’t be able to get further medical attention for a while. AI were such sweethearts. She liked them. Before she could thank him, he disappeared. I take it back, she thought. 

“AKAASHI!” A weak yell, followed by a set of dry coughs.

“Sorry, imaginary Captain Bokuto. I was busy. That cough does sound dreadful. Are you alright?” She murmured a reply, facing the ceiling as she tried not to pass out until someone arrives. That wasn’t something that happened so rarely. But it wasn’t because Keiji was delirious, or insane. Well, she was kind of mental, but she never skipped her meds. That happened, because she’d often imagine wwbd (what would Bokuto do?) in a conversation or an exchange with Bokuto-saucer. That had gained her an imaginary companion, too –Bokuto herself. She assumed it’d go away as the saucers were caught. She hoped.

“What?” An equally confused voice from an equally confused Bokuto. 

“Oh, you know. I need professional help, probably. I mean, you didn’t survive, so it’s impossible for me to be talking to you.” She tucked the clipboard’s pen to the bandage she’d just made from the other glove, and turned it once.

“But dude –”

“I know, I know –it’s delirious. It really is. I am truly sorry. For everything.” She held her left hand high, so it’d be harder for her heart to pump blood there and her blood loss would minimize. –thank you, gravity!

“Oh my god,” Keiji heard an inhale. “Look left, you genius of a turd.” Bokuto breathed out. She glanced left, then turned her gaze back to the ceiling. Then she turned her head completely toward left, as quick as an owl would.

“Cap –ow –tain?” She asked, not believing what she’s seeing. “You’re… alive?”

“See, it takes at least five members of an unrecognized species to put me down for good.” She grinned. Her teeth were bloody, and her hair was a mess, and god –that smell didn’t come from the creature. Yet, her humor was untouched. Words could not express how Keiji felt at that moment. Suspicious? Relieved? Happy? Excited? Scared? None of them quite fit. So she opened her mouth and closed it, as a goldfish would. “I’m not the only one.” Bokuto gritted under her teeth, obviously in great physical effort.

Keiji then realized, how hard it must’ve been on her. On the others. She decided to pack her excitement for later. She had to. Blood loss. She had no idea if this wasn’t actually a hallucination of some sorts. Could be. Don’t let your hopes up. “We know. But how many?”

“Three more –Oikawa, Yamaguchi, and… I forgot her name.” She frowned. “How could I forget her name?” She clutched her forehead.

“It’s alright, Bokuto. You’ve been through a lot.” She scooted next to Bokuto, leaving only a few inches between them.

“Yeah… seems really dumb now that I think about it.” Bokuto scoffed.

“Why so?” She asked, to the probably-imaginary Bokuto. She wanted to touch her to see if she was real. She was afraid her hand would go through her. She didn’t touch her.

“How they got us. It was so elementary.” She said, faking a posh British accent. She then leaned back and sighed, her eyes fixated on the unconscious beast on the ground. “Four of them… they approached me as new ensigns, and asked something about the hierarchical situation of the ship. I directed them to Kou, because you know how he’s better with that stuff than I am. Then one of them simply just hit me in the nape.” She shook her head. “Lamest capture ever. I feel so mediocre.” She turned to Keiji, with her large yellow eyes and big nose. She couldn’t help but to smile genuinely. What if she was part of her imagination? This was her brain treating her. Maybe? Probably. 

“Sounds mediocre.” She physically had to restrain herself by stiffening her muscles to avoid touching her. 

“Yeah I –no. you’re supposed to say shit like, oh no, that’s not mediocre at all, Kotarou! You’re so badass!” She mimicked an explosion –at least, Keiji thought it was one– and leaned back to the wall again. Oh, how weary she looked. 

“I am not your hypewoman.” Keiji raised a brow. 

“True, but you’re my friend.” Bokuto shrugged. 

“Friend’s mouth spews the tea.” Keiji murmured.

“Hm?” She turned to Keiji.

“An old saying. Means that your true friends will tell you the truth, even though it’s cruel.” She explained. 

“Orbian?” Bokuto questioned. 

“Yes.” She nodded. 

“Sounds Orbian.” Bokuto contemplated, her chin sticking up in the air. 

“Why?” 

“It’s weird. Uh, I mean, in a good way of course.” 

“No, it is plain weird. Bamboozling weird. Why-do-Orbians-bother-creating-proverbs weird.” Keiji exclaims, and Bokuto exhales a sigh of relief.

“Right? I was worried I’d offend you so I didn’t say that!” She spoke loudly.

“That might, however, offend remaining Orbians in existence, especially the elders. I suggest you refrain saying that in front of them.” She used her professional voice on her –she didn’t know why. Must’ve been blood loss.

“Yeah, yeah. I wouldn’t badmouth Orbian proverbs in front of you if you weren’t my friend.” She laid her head on Keiji’s shoulders. It didn’t go straight through Keiji. It possessed a certain weight. It…

“Mhm,” Keiji said, glancing down at her wristwatch to distract herself. “Where are they anyways?” She murmured to herself. 

“Maybe they’re asleep.” Bokuto suggested.

“I don’t think so. Klaus?” She tapped the screen of her wristwatch.

“Yes, Ms. Akaashi?” The kind AI, namely Klaus, replied. 

“Where is Co-Captain Sugawara?” She asked.

“He said he was on his way, Ms.” 

“His location, please.” She demanded. 

“The Bridge.”

“Is something wrong? Could you check it or go ask A.N.G.I.?”

“A.N.G.I.… has been terminated.” Even as an AI, the worry in his voice was distinguishable. Keiji’s eyes widened in surprise.

“WHAT!?” Bokuto yelled. “WHAT HAPPENED?!” She was, after all, quite attached to A.N.G.I. Keiji held her hand to calm her down. Which never really worked, but she kept trying anyways. 

“How?” Keiji asked, worry in her voice not as distinguishable as Klaus’.

“Well…”

 

*

“You know I am not the over-gloating type, but I told you so.” Wakatoshi sipped the tea he’d just gotten out of the replicator. Tendou was amazed more than he already was with this dude –who sips a boiling hot tea? Wakatoshi, apparently. 

“Okay, okay! I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice! I am liking Wuthering Heights, which I am currently on! Don’t let me get started on Jane Eyre! Sue me!” He threw his underarms in the air in protest, as he carried his tray.

“I cannot legally sue you.” Wakatoshi sat on a random chair at the cafeteria.

“Yeah –I can’t too.” Tendou sat in front of him. 

“But I want to sue you. I have been telling you to read those books for months.” He made eye contact with him. Tendou could basically hear his thoughts being shouted at him: Why must you be this persistent when it comes to –

“It’s my loss, not yours.” He shrugged, breaking off the contact to not read his friend’s mind. 

“We are friends. Your loss is my loss.” He chugged the tea, making Tendou cringe. He’d asked him many times about… why he’d almost always chug tea like it was some sort of shot. Wakatoshi always replied differently. Sometimes he said he liked the sensation of his mouth burning. Or that he liked it hot. Or that it had lots of benefits to the digestive system. Tendou had a different hypothesis: Wakatoshi was a rad dude out of this time and place, and belonged to a meditation community where they did yoga and chugged hot beverages. Like some islands at Frond. Huh. Strange. Maybe he spent a wild summer there. 

“Yeah, um.” He choked a bit. “I’m sorry.” He said, nipping at his huge sandwich. 

“I was not expecting you to apologize.” He left the cup on Tendou’s tray.

“I still am. I could’ve read those much much earlier.” He complained about his own self, to his best friend. Sadly, that happened way too much on the course of a week.

“Are you still suspended?” Wakatoshi changed the subject. Tendou groaned. 

“Yeees. Two more days.” He took a colossal bite from his sandwich. 

“That sounds cruel.” Wakatoshi grimaced. 

“It is! Someone really should call old man out on his bullshit, or I swear to god –” A sensation of a greater mind disrupted Tendou’s thoughts, and speech. Suddenly, all he could think about was that creature. Seemingly a giant arthropod. A giant and fat arthropod colored bright red, with the blackest eyes deeper than the ocean. She smelled of sulphur and methane, but those odors were not as foul as one would imagine. It was aromatic, almost. He couldn’t peel his eyes away from her. She stood in the void of space, Knuckle Nebula behind her as a reminder that she was greater than it. Greater than the next person. Greater than you. The greatest.

“Is… everything alright?” Wakatoshi asked, waving a hand over Tendou’s eyes. Tendou could see and hear him, but through a thick and red veil curtain. She stood before him. 

My children. She pleaded, voice of Tendou’s own mother, in his own language. You have my children. Give me my children back, and I’ll leave you be. He’d never felt such great mind power, not even from the Four of Frondian Grandmasters.

“Who are you?” He asked. Not really a question. He already knew the answer to that. 

“I am the Queen.” She presented herself. 

“Lady, I know lots of queens. You gotta clarify.” He demanded. 

“Capital Q, Frondian.” She cocked a brow –no, did she have eyebrows? Tendou squinted to see if she had eyebrows. She didn’t. 

“Well, I never actually met them because that’s just how time works, but there’s this old Terran band named Queen, and they’re pretty solid. There’s also this Queen of Den Kalan, but she’s literally just another dictator. Oh, and there’s Queens of Killer Whales –that’s also a music group. Went to see them three years ago. Overhyped, but hey. Still good music.” He shrugged.

“What are you talking about?” Wakatoshi gripped him by his shoulders, and started to shake him. Tendou wanted to give him an answer as well, but he found himself unable to do so. His head was starting to ache.

“Don’t. Mock me.” The Queen touched his head. Okay now it was really hurting.

“Ow! Stop it.” He murmured, his eyes shutting down with pain. 

“Tell me where they are, and I will.” He felt a small leak of blood run down his nose. That always happened when he overused his powers. 

“Why don’t you come find them yourself, if you’re so great?” He regretted his choice of words the instant they came out of his mouth. Not that she hurt him more, no. she let him go. But a part of Tendou knew it was because of his need to validate his saltiness that Sirius was doomed. 

“Tendou!” Wakatoshi was still shaking him.

“Whaa –stop. Waka –STOP! We have to warn them!” He clasped his hands on Wakatoshi’s to stop him.

“Warn whom?” He cocked a brow –see, he had eyebrows. They could sustain three people eyebrow-wise. That’s how you eyebrow, so called Queen. 

The red alert went off.

“So much for that,” Tendou sighed, clutching his forehead with all four of his hands. “Come on. I’ll tell you on the way.” He stuffed a napkin in his nostrils, and gestured Wakatoshi to follow him; hoping that shit wouldn’t go down that much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe shit's starting to go down. I'm stoked.


	13. This Is So Sad, Angie Play Despaciato

Kenma’s loop was ordinary as it could be. He liked to take on the night shift, as there were fewer people to deal with. Although, it wasn’t really his station. See, he was stuck with the day shift at the beginning, but then he managed to switch it up with the night shift guy. What was his name? Kenma didn’t remember. He sucked at names, anyways. His coworkers would always say damn, Kenma, you’d forget your own name if it wasn’t given to you by your mother. Then, Kenma would say, my kind reproduces asexually. I have no mother. Then his one friend Tetsurou would show up out of nowhere and say Damn, girl, you got ‘em good. Then, Kenma would say In my culture, there is no concept of gender. Then they’d ask why do you use he/him pronouns? and he’d just explain to them it felt easier to do so but it really didn’t matter to him which pronouns they used, as the universal translator translated all pronouns to one thing for his gender neutral mother tongue.  
He should stop. He really should.   
He stopped thinking, and focused on navigating the ship. That was way more important. A dull job, that rarely required any attention whatsoever, as the ship’s course was already determined. He literally just sat there, sometimes mapped the area, and checked if the ship was in its course. Why was this seen as such a noble and difficult job by the others, he had no idea. Maybe that was because it required two University diplomas and an Academy degree. Kenma had five of those in total. Was he overqualified? Was that why the job seemed so elementary to him? Sure, it was important, but also easier than managing to drive a manual aircraft. 

The automatic doors to the bridge opened, “Hi, Kenma.” Co-Captain Sugawara spoke, voice sweet as a candy store. Too sweet. 

“Hello, co-captain.” He kindly replied. 

“Is there anything out of the ordinary?” Sugawara asked, as always.

“Goshiki mentioned something about gravitational changes caused by a larger planet we’re approaching might cause Sirius to draw more power from the engines, but the energy usage is still within regular parameters.” He murmured, eyes locked on the screen in front of him. 

“Alright. Do carry on.” Sugawara replied, sitting down. The captain won’t show up? Huh, strange, he thought to himself. They were the only two people on the bridge –which was normal, there still was time until the shift’s beginning. Kenma just liked to be early, as it minimized his contact with people. 

“Kenma.” Human known as Matsukawa bid Kenma an informal salute, to which he nodded. Matsukawa seated himself down to his station –he was in charge of ship’s greatest weapons, which were never really used. Kenma sometimes wondered if he felt as useless as Kenma felt during his shifts. 

He sighed, and leaned back in his chair, eyeing the completely normal readings. Such a. Useless. Job. He closed his eyes for a minute, and when he opened them –readings were all wrong.  
What? he thought to himself, changing half of his screen to view the outer view of the ship. It seemed regular. What if… He logged the computer out from its designated area of study. A.N.G.I. popped up at the corner of his screen.

“What are you doing?”

“Shh. Trust me, A.N.G.I.” He shushed the AI. He then proceeded to manually enter the ship’s outer-cams. Alright, maybe his job wasn’t that easy. He could settle with an intermediate. As he reached the real recordings, not ones that were from hours ago –he had no idea those were the ones showing on all screens– he noticed that they were closer to the larger planet than they should’ve been. In a matter of a few meters, the gravitational pull of the planet would make them crash. To make it worse, that planet was colonized by the Gamzens, meaning that if they set foot on the soil of the damn planet, let alone crashing, it could mean war. 

“That’s not possible.” A.N.G.I. murmured. 

“Apparently, it is.” Kenma replied. He also didn’t think that was possible, unless… someone had been tampering with the records. His eyes narrowed. Why would anyone tamper with those?

“Are you sure it’s not just an anomaly caused by Sirius warping through space-time continuum?” A.N.G.I. pondered.

“Could be. Doesn’t hurt to take countermeasures.” He offered. She agreed it was logical to do so too.

“Co-Captain. You should see this.” He calmly called Sugawara. He got up, and approached Kenma’s station, and sighed as he saw a screen full of codes and algorithms. 

“Ah –you know I’m not good at reading screens, lieutenant. You’ll have to explain.” He stated.

“Well… we are about to crash.” Kenma bluntly stated. 

“WE’RE CRASHING!” A.N.G.I. declared even more bluntly.

“What do you mean we’re crashing? Where?” Co-Captain Sugawara slightly rose. 

“Into the Gamzen colonized planet Zeta-B-9.” Kenma continued.

“WE’RE GONNA CRASH INTO ZETA-B-9!” A.N.G.I. shouted.

“Angie… cut that out for the love of god. There are only four people on the bridge.” Sugawara pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I like to create chaos.” A.N.G.I. confessed.

“I know. Please stop it.” Sugawara pleaded.

“Okay.” A.N.G.I., pouting as much as an AI without a face and an expression could possibly pout, agreed.

“Kenma, I trust your work. But we weren’t supposed to reach that planet for days.” Sugawara contemplated.

“Co-Captain… Sirius has used antimatter energy for far longer than any other spacecraft has, so there’s not much we understand about how fast we’re going relative to the space around us.” Kenma stated. 

“True, but we’ve taken that into account while doing our calculations.” He pinched the bridge of his nose again. That’s something he does often, Kenma thought to himself.

“Doesn’t change the fact that we will crash if we don’t change our course in about two minutes.” Kenma stated, agonized. Sugawara looked at him for a moment, then nodded as he made his way to the captain’s seat.

“Konoha. 30% of the power available to our left thrusters. Matsukawa, take on Aone’s station until she arrives, and help Konoha. Angie, I need you to broadcast Kenma’s rogue screen to the bridge projector. Kenma...” He looked at him for a second, trying to differentiate something. Kenma didn’t know what. “Calculate our escape acceleration and velocity.” He ordered.

What? That’s a child’s physics problem! he thought. “But co-captain –” He objected.

“Do as I say.” Sugawara insisted, eyeing the screen in front of him. 

“Understood.” He ran a quick calculation, and sent the results to Sugawara. Then waited for further orders, as he observed the ship get closer and closer to the planet. 

“It’s not enough!” Konoha, frustrated, exclaimed. According to Kenma’s calculations, the force needed to rip apart from the planet completely was –

“Lieutenant Kenma. How much power?” Sugawara asked, leaning forward in the seat. 

“At least 69%, sir.” Matsukawa and Konoha snickered. What? It was just a number. No, not a number, percentage. Still, it was just a percentage.

“70% of available power to left thrusters. Angie, sound grey alert. Cut the power of right outer decks.” Sugawara rose from his seat, then sat back again after a few moments.

“GREY ALERT, PEOPLE! EXIT DECKS 494 TO 849 AND 1220 TO 3049 IN MINUS FIVE MINUTES, ‘CAUSE WE’RE GONNA CUT THE POWER TO THOSE DECKS! GO, GO, GO! ALSO CAPTAIN BOKUTO, IT’D BE SWELL TO HAVE YOU HERE!” She sounded the alarm. Sugawara sighed.

“You know, sometimes I think bridge’s AI shouldn’t be picked out by starship captains.” He was followed by a few snickers. 

“You’d only think that for Captain Bokuto, sir.” Matsukawa teased the co-captain. 

“That’s probably true,” Sugawara gritted his teeth, smiling. “Are we still being driven to the planet’s field?” He asked.

“Yes.” Konoha, thirty-three, did not deserve that kind of pressure. No, he probably did know what he was getting into when he graduated Academy. Still. He did not deserve it. A trendy song was ringing in his ears and –god, where was Aone?

“I suggest we sound yellow alert and use 90% of the ship’s available power.” Kenma offered. 

“Angie, you heard the guy.” Sugawara, thirty-nine, almost immediately regretted saying those particular words.

“YELLOW ALERT! YEEEELLLOOOW ALERT! OH CRAP, GUYS, YELLOW ALERT! AAAAAAAAAAAA! CAPTAIN, WHERE ARE YOU?!” Sugawara felt so done, and he’d always had his coffee for the shift. 

“Did you sound it to all the decks?” He asked. 

“Only the ones that supposedly carry people.” A.N.G.I. quickly replied. “YELLOW ALERT! YEEELLOOOOW!”

“Good, good.” Sugawara glanced at his wristwatch. Aone was yet again late for the shift. 

“Co-Captain?” Kenma’s voice snapped him out of the thought.

“Yes, Kenma.” He replied, calmer than his thoughts were.

“Our sensors are detecting an organism approaching.” He said, glancing down at the detector. 

“Angie, please alert all bridge personnel to come immediately. Without yelling, please.” He ordered the AI.

“Sure. All bridge personnel are expected to…” 

“Is it a living organism? A giant tardigrade, maybe?” Sugawara asked, and wanted Kenma to send him his readings.

“No sir. It seems more like…” Kenma squinted. “An… arthropod? Correction: an enormous arthropod.” He glanced at the readings that came from the creature to interpret the creature better.   
Aone, Goshiki, Tetsurou, and Ennoshita all arrived at the same time, running. Aone had an iced latte in her hands. She chugged it and tossed it into a nearby trashcan.

“What’s wro –ONG!?” Ennoshita asked, before noticing the giant arthropod that stood in the screen in front of him. “What is that?!”

“We heard Angie sound the yellow alert and then –” Tetsurou started off, in a state of I can’t take my eyes off this magnificent ant of a bastard.

“To your stations.” Sugawara ordered the four.

“Understood.” Aone nodded, and they all approached their stations, aware of the urgency of the situation. 

“Um –I know my shift’s over, but…” Goshiki’s speech dozed off. 

“Go help Konoha and Aone. Matsukawa, you’re back on the weapons.” He turned to them to give them his orders. 

“Yes!” He exclaimed, then explained. “I love my station.”

“Kenma, do you have more info on the arthropod?” He asked Kenma.

“Yes. She’s female. She’s trying to communicate with us… but our sensors are not sensitive enough to pick on that. I think somehow… she is pulling us towards the planet, rather than the gravitational field. The force Sirius is performing to get out of the field could get us out of sun’s field of gravitational pull.” He switched his screen to the creature’s biological readings. “Also, her DNA has six helixes and the gene sequence is similar to the captured invader.” Kenma explained in one breath. Whole crew on the ship would probably stare at him if they weren’t already so busy, so the only one who stared at him was Goshiki.

Sugawara nodded. “Alright.” He opened a hatch on the captain’s seat’s armrest, and pressed the big red button. 

**Red alert. All personnel to their stations. Red alert.**

“But  I wanted to do that.” A.N.G.I. retorted.

“Maybe next time. Can we get out of her pull with our current available power?” Co-Captain questioned. 

“Yes… and no. I doubt she’s using all her power to keep us at the bay.” Do we really have to do this? Kenma thought to himself.

“Weapon status.” Sugawara demanded. 

“Well… I really hate to say this but these draw power from the main engine, so it’s impossible to use them while keeping most our available power in the left thrusters.” Matsukawa explained, his forehead covered with sweat. Was he stressing? Or was he a keen sweater? By definition, he was not a sweater. 

“Co-Captain…” A.N.G.I’s shaky voice filled the room.

“Then we have to communicate. Oh, lieutenant, could you try and hail the creature?” He asked Terushima, not really minding A.N.G.I.

“Yessir.” He replied, turning back to his station. 

“I don’t feel so good.” A.N.G.I. imitated the sound of a human barfing. 

“Though, if someone were to swap the power source of the weapons…” Matsukawa thought out loud. 

“What are you suggesting?” 

“We could connect the weapons’ power source into something… different.” He offered.

“Like what?” Sugawara raised his eyebrows –they were barely visible, but the energy they contained made up for it. 

“The life support.” Matsukawa murmured, gazing away.

“Sugawara.” A.N.G.I.’s wobbly voice echoed through the bridge. 

“Out of question.” His eyebrows crossed together, almost forming a V. 

“We’ve got plenty of spare air, water, and food.” Matsukawa stated.

“Out of question” Matsukawa was about to pout, but then he remembered a drunken tale Sugawara’d told Oikawa, who told him. Co-Captain Sugawara was the sole survivor from Olga the Spaceship. He remembered that article well. It’d happened thirty years ago, but he’d checked the article last month to check if Oikawa was truly telling the truth –that prick liked to flimflam innocent bystanders. The life support systems of the ship had failed, and everybody had died. All nine people on the ship. Everybody but the son of a technician. A spare. 

“Understood.” He gulped, and nodded. 

“SUGAWARA KOUSHI!” A.N.G.I. used all speakers available on the bridge. Everyone, automatically, covered their auditory organs. 

“What the hell?” Terushima mumbled.

“What’s it, Angie? We’re in the middle of something here.” Sugawara tried to balance the pressure inside his ears with the air’s pressure to get rid of his ears’ ringing. 

“I’M…” Her system started glitching. “WhaT’s HappeNinG to mE?” She wailed.

“Kenma, what’s happening to Angie?” 

“Her frequency is being devoured by the creature’s brainwave frequency.” Kenma explained, as he viewed her unit’s software. But how?

“Is that even possible?” Konoha murmured. “Oh sh –”

Kenma took a deep breath. “Apparently so. It’s probably reversible. But I suggest we turn off A.N.G.I. for precaution.” That was the conclusion her unit’s software left him with. 

“noOoOoOO… I haTe BeiNG TUrnEd OfF.” A.N.G.I. kindly disagreed.

“This is for your own good,” Sugawara said, reaching down to A.N.G.I.’s panel that’s below his seat. 

“NoOOOOooooOOo…” She weakly prevailed, as she was turned off. Sugawara emptied the slot that carried AN.G.I.’ hard drive that’s a size of your regular chapstick, and stuffed it in his chest pocket. 

“She’ll be fine. Hopefully.” He said, patting the said pocket. “Terushima?”

“We can’t communicate with the creature the way she wants, captain.” He answered, his hands full. “To be honest at this point I’ve got no idea what I’m doing.” He confessed with a shrug. 

Then, the automatic doors of the bridge swung open. A bright orange arm holding a tiny device, followed by a bright orange body, came through. “Stop this wedding!” He was followed by another body, which was not orange. He was Ushijima of CS, and he came to do the utmost important thing: literally stand there and wait for his friend.

“No one’s marrying.” Konoha raised a brow. 

“Semantics.” He strolled next to co-captain, and whispered something to his ear. 

“Are you sure?” He whispered a harsh whisper back at him as an answer. 

“Do you have a better idea?” Tendou raised all his eyebrows.

“Right,” He turned to Terushima. “Yuuji, help Tendou communicate with the creature.”

“She prefers being called ‘Queen’, actually.” Tendou clarified. 

“What? He’s an engineer! I bet he doesn’t even –” Sugawara cut him off.

“He’s Frondian. He’s a telepath. He’s our best chance. Link him up.” He turned to the screen, as he leaned back to the captain’s seat. Terushima rolled his eyes.

“Fine. C’mere, Mr. Outerspace.” He gestured Tendou. 

“I should probably be offended but that’s a sick nick.” Tendou shrugged.

“Thanks. Didn’t mean to offend, by the way.” Terushima said, closing the unnecessary channels he’d opened.

“Get to work you two.” Sugawara scolded them. 

“Yes.” 

“Makes sense. Link me up, Yuuji.” Said Tendou, letting himself drape over Terushima’s station. Matsukawa, eyeing the situation worriedly, beamed up.

“Are we sure about not utilizing our weapons?” He asked.

“Yes.” Sugawara replied.

“But what if we used another source of energy for it?” He suggested, a pen dangling off from his left hand. 

“We have got three energy sources. Two of them are currently in use, and one is for life support.” Kenma explained.

“Yeah, let’s not use those.” Matsukawa mumbled, twirling the pen around his fingers.

“What do you suggest?” Sugawara asked.

“Oh, you’re going to like it.” Konoha murmured without tearing his eyes off from his screen. He couldn’t afford to look away, really. 

“Kenma, is there a Nova star nearby?” Matsukawa chirped, unusually cheerful. 

“Uh… no.” Kenma replied, with an equal level of unusualness of confusion. 

“What about a nebula?” He asked. 

“Oh, there’s the Knuckle Nebula.” Kenma replied, as he kind of understood where he was getting at. 

“Jackpot! We can use the nebula’s whole atoms’ energy! I bet it’s a remnant of a supernova explosi –uhhhn!” Matsukawa hit his head on his station, as the ship shook from a certain impact. A series of swear words among a variety of languages filled the room

“Oh fu –” Konoha exclaimed, rubbing his nose.

“What in…” Tetsurou mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. 

“What just happened?” Sugawara asked the question which was directed to a certain individual.

“We have… entered the gravitational pull of the planet.” Kenma, shocked, stared at his screen. 

“Shall I give full power to the thrusters, co-captain?” Aone asked for his permission. 

“No, brute force won’t get us out of here.” Sugawara exhaled, unnerved. So much for preventing an intergalactic war.

“Yeah. She wants her three sons and one daughter that’s aboard the ship. also, she wants to consume our flesh. No biggie.” Tendou got up, ripping the electrodes attached to his head out on his way up. 

“I beg your pardon?” Sugawara squinted. 

“That’s lit. I mean, not for us. It’s lit for them though.” Terushima mumbled, as he organized his station back to its original state. 

“Terushima, with all due respect…” Matsukawa started off.

“…what the fuck?” And Konoha finished what he started.

“Apparently, we could sustain her colonies for more than a century.” Tendou shrugged. 

“A.N.G.I., activate protocol –” He started off, but then realized that she was asleep. Goddamnit, he thought to himself. “Terushima, open me a ship-wide hail channel.”

“You got it boss. Move,” He shoved Tendou out from his station, and pressed a few buttons. “It’s…” He pressed one final button. Ready, he mouthed. 

“This is the Co-Captain speaking. Approach to your designated escape pods. We’re abandoning ship, I repeat we’re abandoning ship.” A cloud of anxious murmurs filled the flexible atmosphere of the bridge. 

“What the fuck, Koushi?” Konoha retorted, as Sugawara closed the channel. 

“I’m not about to let my crewmembers die because of a fucking ant. Also, it’s Co-Captain Sugawara to you. Now go, all of you. It’s an order.” He stated, as the most bridge personnel got up to leave. 

“Okay. But A.N.G.I.’s asleep. How will we –” Konoha started off, only to be cut by the co-captain. 

“You heard my orders.” He insisted.

“How will you evacuate, Sugawara?” Konoha’s eyes narrowed. 

“I’ll reattach bridge and –look, just go to your escape pods, alright? I’ve got Angie with me.” He reassured them.

“But –”

“Come on, man.” Matsukawa grabbed his arm, and yanked him out of the room. 

“Ahh! Matsu, you wet blanket.” Konoha murmured. 

“To be honest I think I can convince Queen to let us go.” Tendou stated, clicking his tongue.

“Then by all means, join me.” Sugawara offered him.

“You go ahead, Wakatoshi.” He nodded to his friend.

“Are you sure?” Wakatoshi asked, unsure. 

“Yeah, you’re no good to me here.” He coldly stated. His friend got up and walked towards the door. 

“Hey,” Wakatoshi said before exiting the room. “You owe me fifty credits. Don’t die.” He simply said, smiling because he didn’t want Tendou to sense his conflict.

“I’ll try.” He assured his friend, totally sensing his conflict. Wakatoshi left the bridge. 

Sugawara whispered to him, “Are you certain you can convince her? Because if you can’t, we’re both good as dead.”

“Absolutely not. But I’m certain that I can stall her.” Tendou cracked all his fingers. 

“I’ll link you to the hardware.” Sugawara said. 

“That won’t be necessary.” He said taking the brainwave detecting device out from his pocket. “I’ve got my own.” He held it in his hands, and focused. “I’ll try and neutralize her brainwaves’ frequency. When I say pineapple, you reanimate Angie.” Tendou explained. Sugawara nodded, running to be ready to reattach the AI.

“Hey, mom.” Tendou spoke, voice loud and clear. “Did you miss me?”  
The Queen’s attention was partially given to the Frondian. Do you wish me to hurt you more?

“I know where your children are.” He said, trying to read the brainwave frequency. It was difficult, but not as difficult as he expected it to be. The red veil before his eyes had decreased in density. Maybe she was getting tired.

Children. Where? primary thoughts of that sorts filled her brain.

“Mhm, yeah. I saw one of them at the vision area. They were doodling something on the wall. I couldn’t really catch it, but it was something like, I hate my mom. She never gets me. I wish I had more friends.”

Stop. Mocking. Me. she spat out. Her ant pincers moved threateningly. Tendou gulped. 

“I’m being totally honest! That child was in the ship’s prison. Now I reckon they’re inside an escape pod,” The device beeped, informing Tendou that the brainwave frequency was neutralized. “Because you’re fucking this ship up pineapple granny.” He gave her the finger guns. Sugawara rushed to reanimate A.N.G.I.

The Queen looked at him for a good few seconds, before leaning in. I can see that child Pikors does fit your description. Go on. Where are the others?

“See, that’s the catch. Hypothetically speaking, I know where they are.” He explained. 

Well? she raised a non-existent eyebrow. 

“On board.” He wiggled his eyebrows. 

“WooOoOooOO! I’m back!” A.N.G.I. let out a shout of victory.

“Welcome back Angie.” Sugawara welcomed her. “We’ve got lots of work to do.”

Frondian. Your answers are not fruitful. Queen sneered. 

“Nobody says fruitful anymore, grandmama.” Tendou informed her. “Look, we are as confused as the next person. Who are they? Where did they come from? By all means, take them.”

No. You have abducted my children.

“Is that what you think.” Tendou pretended to wipe off sweat from his forehead. “Cause that’s so not what’s happened.”

I believe what I want to believe. You have no power over me.

“But what if I do?” Tendou said, hitting the device’s sole button.

The Queen shrieked in agony, What have you done?! She wailed and then, disappeared. The ship was no longer being hauled. 

“Now, we know her coordinates.” He said, holding the device high. “Can you please get us away from this horrid planet’s field?” He entered the codes to A.N.G.I.’s software.

“Oh, I know that place! They’re near the core. Silly Gamzens, that’s why they deemed the planet deserted.”

“yeah, maybe not call the council’s one and only rival planet silly.” He scolded A.N.G.I. “Sure thing.” He replied to Tendou, positioning himself at Kenma’s station. “Your nose is bleeding.” He commented, as he exiled the ship away from Zeta-B-9.

“I know.” Tendou stuffed more napkin inside his nostrils, and decided it was time to take a nap.

Before he dozed off, he heard an enthusiastic, “What’s up, the bridge? It’s your favorite officer…”

*

“I’m glad I saw your distress call, Keiji!” Yukie said, patching up Bokuto’s swollen right ankle. “Good news is it’s not broken.” She merrily announced.

“I just needed you to bring us a pair of cuffs for the saucer.” Keiji murmured in protest. 

“Saucer?” Yukie cracked a brow.

“Sorry. It’s just what we call them.” She said, not clarifying who ‘we’ are.

“They’re called Maeledictorians.” Yukie explained. 

“Right. And you know that, because…?” Keiji suspiciously eyed the doctor.

“Oh, I ran into Kiyoko on my way here.” She shrugged.

“And you know about them because…?” 

“Sugawara told me. I have been in on this for longer than you have. I understand why you are skeptical, though. You think I’m one of them. You’re afraid I’ll hurt her, or you, or both of you. It’d be easy to understand that I am Yukie Shirofuku you know and love, though.”

“What’s the name of my pet?” Bokuto asked randomly.

“Chokkie. A black cat. Because you love chocolate and your cat.” Yukie scoffed. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

“I’m just warming up, Yuki.” Bokuto smiled through her gritted teeth.

“I told you not to call me that, Kouta.” She pressed down on Bokuto’s ankle. “Now I’m going to wrap this. I could heal it in an instant if we were in my hospital wing, but this’ll have to do for now. See I don’t normally… wing it.” Yukie said, winking. Keiji’s second, third, and then fourth chin showed –that’s how done she was with that whole thing. Yukie went through the first aid kit she’d brought on her way here for some bandages.

“Fair enough.” Bokuto winced. “Ow!” She grunted as Yukie’s capable hands started wrapping her ankle. 

“What? Is it tight?” Yukie asked, ceasing her speed.

“No, it just feels... strange.” Bokuto shrugged, staring at her own ankle.

“Yeah, you are lucky frostbite didn’t stop by your face and toes.” Yukie murmured. “

“I guess,” Bokuto commented. She’d mentioned the days the invaders made them spend down at the engine rooms and colder parts of the ships. “Should I be thankful? Because I’m not.” She fussed, rightfully so.

“That’s your call.” Yukie murmured, leaning towards her ankle.

“Anyways, Akaashi, I do trust her.” She said, squeezing Keiji’s hand. 

“I don’t. Keep asking. You know her better than anyone.” She replied, voice cold and hoarse. Her eyeliner game was so on point that even Bokuto felt intimidated by her a slight second. 

“Fine, fine. What’s the thing tattooed on my butt?” Bokuto asked.

“Trick question. You’ve got only one tattoo, and that’s somewhere else.” Yukie didn’t budge. She was the real Yukie, and she didn’t need them to believe her. With injuries like those? Bokuto would collapse in a second, and Keiji in a minute. She was just a doctor, but hey, those are infamous for their restraining abilities.

“Where?” Bokuto and her eyebrow game stepped up. Yukie chuckled, as she kept on wrapping Bokuto’s ankle.

“If it feels too tight, do tell me. And… do you really want me to say it in front of your –”

“Yes.” Bokuto inhaled.

“Okay.” She turned to Keiji. “It’s under her –”

“You know what, I changed my mind. Don’t tell her.” Bokuto shook her head, and slouched. 

Yukie inhaled. She’d only get one shot at this. “It’sunderherleftboob.” She quickly said, and observed Keiji’s reaction. She found that most amusing. 

“OH COME ON!” Bokuto, thirty- four, threw her hands in the air in protest. 

“Don’t move around so much! I’m not done yet!” She hissed.

“Sorry, sorry.” She kept her build crouched down at the corner.

“So it’s a small tattoo, then.” Keiji, trying not to show her true colors, said. She was mildly convinced that Yukie could be trusted. 

“Yeah. It’s the Planck’s constant.” Bokuto, clearly blushing, said. “I am so done with you, Yukie.”

“Oh shut up, nerd. Who gets the Planck’s freaking constant as a tattoo?” She finished patching up her leg. “All done!” She gave it a light pat. 

“Said the doctor.” Bokuto said, moving her leg out of Yukie’s lap. 

“You’ve got a PhD yourself.” Yukie didn’t budge. 

“Yeah, in aerospace technicalities. You went through fifteen years’ worth of med school in eleven years. During that time your eye number increased four and a quarter points.” Bokuto stated. 

“You’re the youngest person to captain a starship, ever.” Yukie put her hands on her slim waist, as Keiji watched them squabble as if she was observing a mediocre ping pong match.

“Your area of specialization is Frondian neurology.” Bokuto shot back.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you have Planck’s constant tattooed under your left boob.” She sighed, and held her hand towards Keiji. “Let me see your hand.” 

“I took care of it.” Keiji shrugged. 

“Maybe I misspoke. I said: let me see your hand.” Yukie smiled at her, giving her the chills. 

“…fine.” She gave her hand to Yukie’s care. 

“Hmm.” Yukie murmured, as she observed Keiji’s hand.

“Will she live, doctor?” Bokuto, a known dramatic, had the need to ask. 

“No. because you’ve just killed her with that dreadful impression.” Yukie rolled her eyes. The wrist was… well, she needed to check it for hemorrhaging, but with only a first aid kit, that wasn’t possible. 

“Impression of whom?” Bokuto asked innocently. 

“I don’t know. One of the great great great great grandchildren of Kim Kardashian?” Yukie offered. 

“Who’s Kim Kardashian?” She asked, more innocently this time. 

“I’m glad.” Keiji put her free hand on Bokuto’s back. “You don’t need to know.”

“Do not ever know.” Yukie shuddered.

“Um… okay.” She slowly peeled herself away from their gaze.

“Keiji. I’m afraid I’ve got some mediocre news.” Yukie said, stone cold.

“What are they?” Keiji replied, neutral as she could be.

“It’s good that you thought of freezing your wrist, but I’m not able to say the same thing about the tourniquet. You did it too tight, and I really can’t undo it as it may cause hemorrhaging in your wrist area.” She explained.

“Wait, so –” Bokuto started off, only to be cut off. She shrugged and opened a pack of crackers.

“I see.” Keiji nodded.

“So. Is she gonna lose the hand?” Bokuto, snacking on a piece of cracker, asked. Yukie’s head turned towards her immediately, eyes wide open

“Kotarou! That’s not how you say it to a patient!” She shrieked. “You and your shitty bedside manner is driving me crazy.” She hissed.

“It’s okay. Will I lose it?” Keiji calmly replied what Bokuto’d initially meant.

“You’re lucky you’ve got an Orbian’s physiology. Your blood pumps slower than us Terrans. If I can’t get you to a medical care area under sixteen to twenty hours though… you probably will. I might have to cut it after that point.” She exhaled, as she let go of her wrist.

“Nooo!” Bokuto wailed, eyes wide.

“Alright.” Keiji shrugged. Captain’s head shot up right to towards her side of the room.

“Akaashi! You’re supposed to, I dunno, get sadder or something!” She exclaimed.

“I’m not really sad. Prosthetics are pretty improved on Orb.” Keiji explained. 

“Oh. But still, it won’t be like your old hand. It’ll never have the same sensation and –”

“Kotarou, oh my god!” Yukie slapped her own forehead. “Stop making it worse than it already is!” She zipped Boktuo’s mouth, metaphorically. 

“It’s my left hand, and I’m not a pianist or a sportsman. And we’re on a developed spaceship, with five different medbays. Chances are, I’ll be fine.” She clutched to her wrist. No, it wasn’t fine. She didn’t want to lose her whole left hand. It’d hurt to remove it. It’d have phantom pains. Prosthetics may be developed on Orb, but it still hurt like hell because the sequence of nerve bonding required the patient feel everything. Still, she played it cool. It’d been so long since Bokuto last felt wholesome, and Keiji wasn’t about to ruin that. 

“If you say so.” Bokuto held the cracker package towards Keiji. “Want some?” Keiji took some in her hand, and started munching on it. She didn’t realize how hungry she was.

“Sure, Kotarou, I’d like some too. Thanks for asking.” Yukie blinked continuously.

“Hey, I was getting there!” Bokuto exclaimed, as she threw the remaining crackers to Yukie. Her eyes darted around the supply room/closet (she never knew which it was) for a while, before locking on the unconscious and cuffed Maeledictorian. The creature’s exoskeleton appeared to be black at first, but it was so much more than that. It kind of reminded Bokuto of sea sparkles around the oil spills, that weird edible seashells’ shell parts, and northern lights if they were only slightly visible.   
The creature moved in his sleep, somehow disturbed.

“Kind of pretty, isn’t he?” Yukie asked, nodding at the unconscious creature.

“He’s literally a large ant.” Keiji, L.I.S.T. that wasn’t that fond of bugs nor invaders, replied.

“But he is. Physically speaking.”

“Yeah, like, look at his exo. I know people who’d kill to acquire a color like that.” Keiji almost rolled her eyes –these two were easy to amuse.

“It is not simply pigmentation. Structure has role to play in that color. See,” Keiji held her flashlight to the creature’s exoskeleton’s largest part. It lit with all colors that was known to Bokuto’s eyes. “Structure.”

Her eyes lit with amazement. “Woah,” She simply said. “That’s awesome.”

“Mind you, he did try to eat you alive. Like, two hours ago.” Yukie chirped in.

“You shouldn’t let your guard down.” Keiji added.

“I know. I still hate his guts.” Bokuto sneered.

“Anyways, did Inspector Shimizu mention anything else?” Keiji asked Dr. Shirofuku.

“Yes. She mentioned that we’ve been –well, you’ve– been,” She nodded at Bokuto’s general direction. “Being monitored for a year.” 

“That’s crazy.” Bokuto commented. 

“But that it wasn’t last year. Or the year before that. They’ve monitored you five to six years ago. When you all were on your paid vacation.” She added.

“Of course. That makes sense.” Keiji said, stroking her chin with her finger.

“Wha –why?” Bokuto’s hurt eyes turned to Keiji. “Are you saying that I’ve not matured in the last five years?” She wailed. Keiji blinked once. And twice. Perhaps I implied it wrong.

“No. If anything, he seemed like an immature version of you.” She put a supportive hand on her shoulder. No, don’t misunderstand, she did it to support herself more than the person in front of her. “What I meant was that the creature continuously snacked on salted pomegranate seeds, and adored pomegranate wine.” Bokuto shuddered at the mention of pomegranates.

“Don’t speak the p-word to me ever again, Akaashi.” She spat out.

“Alright, sorry.” Keiji agreed.

“Pomegranate. Wine. Seeds. Small seeds, in the big fruit. Sugar-free pomegranate juice.” Yukie chirped in yet again. Bokuto held her stomach, in agony. 

“Auughh, come oon…” She doubled up. 

“Stop tormenting her.” Keiji said, stroking Bokuto’s back. She shrank towards Keiji.

“Why? Seems likeyou’re fine with where you are.” She gestured at the intimate position they were in.

“I… don’t know what you’re…” She coughed. 

“Yeah. Right. Sure.” Yukie rolled her eyes, then mouthed you’re too goddamn obvious.

“P-word is gone, captain.” Keiji notified her friend.

“Oh… thanks.” Bokuto tore herself away from Keiji, then coughed. “You don’t need to call me captain, Akaashi. I haven’t done much captaining lately.”

“I know. I want to.” She ate her last cracker. She was still hungry. Right –she hadn’t eaten a decent meal for three days now.

“Oooookay.” Yukie clapped her hands. “Now if you’ll excuse me and yourselves, we do have to get going. I don’t think we have time to wait for the security guard we hailed to show up.” She got up, and went to the door.

“You’re right.” Bokuto rose up, and walked next to her friend. Yukie opened the manual door.  
Blares of red alert filled the supply closet. 

Yukie, thirty-seven, Eyed the corridor warily. “Just… how soundproof is this closet?” She pondered, as she leaned to the doorframe to see the hall better.

Keiji, running towards the corridor, answered her. “More than it needs to be.” She joined her as she leaned towards the doorframe.

“Akaashi.” Bokuto said, leaning towards the doorframe because she didn’t want to miss out if anything happened. 

“Yes?” Keiji replied expectantly. 

“Have I ever told you that your accent is… uh, you’ve got an accent?” She fumbled with her words. Yukie giggled at her feeble attempt at flirting making everything complicated. 

“No, Bokuto. But I’m aware.” Keiji frowned. Does it bother her? Supply closets did not contain universal translators.

Yukie coughed, “Nice.”

“Oh bite m –”

“Shh.” Keiji shushed them. “Do you hear it?”

“Hear what?” Bokuto asked a relatively dumb question.

“Shut up.” Yukie taunted her.

“It’s… we’re being hauled.” She moved her ears to catch the slightest slight of a sound. 

“Who’s being what now?” Yukie spat out. 

“I mean Siri –” The ship rocked with what either of them could only describe as an earthquake, as if Sirius was a planet with a hot core. It was a brief moment, but was enough to throw them off their guards.

“THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!” Bokuto held onto both Yukie and Keiji to stay afoot. It could be said that she wasn’t exactly in her best condition, and for a good list of reasons. 

“Uuhh, are you guys seeing this?” Yukie pointed to a nearby window, wielding a completely blank expression, as if she was saying yeah I mean this is probably the seventeenth weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in space.

Keiji grabbed the back of her neck. “That looks like…” She was out of words to describe the creature.

“Giant ant! Giant red ant!” Yet apparently, Bokuto wasn’t. 

“We have to get out of here. The ship is dangerously close to that planet.” Keiji warned the two, as the red alert and chants of abandon ship blasted through the invisible speakers of the ship. 

“Yeah, of course. I’m sure the firetruck red ant is just the cherry on top.” Yukie murmured, and jogged inside the supply closet. “We have to take him with us.” She said, kneeling next to him and supporting him.

“What? He tried to eat me!” Bokuto exclaimed, clearly confused. She regained her footing.

“We can’t leave him to die. That’s against regulations.” Keiji stated. Bokuto murmured something about ‘fucking regulations’ and ‘her ass’. 

“Don’t worry. He’s out for good. I made sure of that.” Yukie gave them the finger guns. Keiji and Yukie carried the creature, as Bokuto jogged in front of them. 

“According to Klaus, the nearest escape pods are at deck 1170.” Keiji stated, as she thanked the AI inside her wristwatch.

“Let’s go.” Bokuto, giving in her last ditch of effort, picked up her pace. Keiji smiled to herself –and to Yukie, as she observed the interaction between them and then probably laughed about it with friends over some drinks– about how vivid Bokuto was. That was the real Captain Bokuto. Not a simple airhead who’d gotten her position by pure luck, a brilliant and enthusiastic leader who bloomed with the support of those around her.   
Luckily, deck 1170 was about three minutes away. Keiji felt that she surely would lose the hand, but right now it didn’t matter, she was with her. She could trade all her being for that.

Yukie threw the Maeledictorian to the escape pod first, and then herself. “So. This is random but, does anyone have any idea why we’re abandoning ship?”

“Umm,” Bokuto entered the necessary coordinates. “Giant ant?” She offered.

“Giant ant.” Keiji approved, as she seated herself next to Yukie. “Come on, captain.”

“Yeah, about that...” She scratched her nape, as she pressed the large red button that would make the pod eject in a minute. A glass barried came between them. “I am not.”

“What?” Keiji whispered, still smiling. This has to be a joke.

“I’m the captain of this ship. I should go down with it.” Bokuto declared. 

“Kotarou you –” Yukie shouted. “Tell your arrogant ass to come join us!”

“I should go to the bridge and check the situation there.” She said, smiling as bright as the day Keiji first met her. Her eyes widened. She’s not joking.

“You’re barely keeping on foot!” Keiji shouted, uncharacteristically. She pressed her hands to the glass barrier. 

“I stole some medical marijuana and caffeine from your pocket, Yuki.” She pointed at her pupils. They were almost the size of a dime. 

“I can’t believe you!” Her French accent was becoming prominent. “Get back here you... you -morceau de grenade!” Yukie exhaled.

“Goodbye you two. It’s been an honor, working with you. Knowing you. Being your friends.” Her eyes met Keiji’s, staring longingly.   
The metal barrier shut down. 

**Ten seconds until…**

“No.” Keiji shook her head, unbelieving. “This can’t be. I just got you back. I just got her back.” She turned to Yukie, who was having her own version of coping with it –dry anger. 

“BOKUTO! YOU STALE MINT JULEP!”

I just got her back.

“YOU BETTER BE GOING TO A DIFFERENT ESCAPE POD, FUCKER!”

I just got her…  
Keiji took an agonizing breath, as she leaned on the metal barrier. The pod launched, as Keiji felt the familiar sensation of salty water running on her cheeks.


End file.
